Middle of Nowhere
by hawaibabe
Summary: Miley finds herself stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with none other than Jake Ryan, the one guy she loves to hate. How will the teen superstars survive with nothing but the sand, the trees and miles of ocean? And will they ever get along? JM
1. Prologue

The harsh sunlight beat down on my face. I could feel the pain my body was in. My back hurt. My feet were tingling. My lips were chapped. My throat screamed in thirst. I couldn't remember anything. I didn't know where I was or what had happened. All I remembered was getting on a plane…in Malibu. I remembered saying good-bye to my dad, hugging Lily and promising to call her the second I landed, and slowly walking onto the plane that was to take me to some random island in the middle of nowhere.

Slowly, I tried to open my eyes. The bright sunlight blinded me at first. Slowly, my eyes adjusted and I sat up despite my body's protests to look around. Well, I was definitely on an island in the middle of nowhere. But I was pretty sure this wasn't the island I was supposed to be on. For one, there was no limo waiting outside the airport to pick me up. There was no one standing above me asking if I was going to be okay. In fact, there wasn't much of anything on the island: a bunch of palm trees, beautiful white sand, shoreline for miles, and ocean for miles past that. And then I heard it.

"…Miley?"

His voice was soft and rough, like he hadn't used it for days. I looked over, almost relieved to at least see something living. I was less relieved when I realized who it was. Mr. Zombie Slayer himself. Jake Ryan. Egotistical, stuck up, famous Jake Ryan.

"What happened?" he whispered.

I sighed, "I don't really know Jake," my voice was scratchy, too, "One minute I'm flying off to hell with you sitting next to me. The next, I'm waking up in the middle of nowhere."

He closed his eyes and scrunched his eyebrows, as if he were trying to solve a very hard math problem. "The plane…I remember we were flying through that thunderstorm, and the captain was telling us to prepare for a crash landing," Jake slowly trailed off and for the first time, I realized there was something else on the beach.

Everywhere, metal scraps lay in the sand. Some of the scraps were jammed into the sand, while others just lay on the shoreline. I could see foam scraps every few feet, some still covered in the fabric from the airplane seats. Clearly, we had crashed, and apparently, no one else had lived to tell the tale.

So here we were, in the middle of nowhere; two teenage superstars with no one around for miles…hell, probably thousands of miles. We were officially stranded on a random island in the middle of no where. And all I could think was, _if my dad hadn't made me agree to film this stupid movie as Hannah with Jake, I would NOT be here right now._

And I promptly burst into tears.


	2. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! Krissy here. I got a lot of hits on the first part of my story, but only a few reviews. So I decided to at least post the first chapter to see if I could generate some more of those lovely review things. **

**Also, I forgot to put this little note in the prologue, so I'm adding it here.**

**First, I in no way, shape or form hold any sort of ownership over the characters in this story...the Disney Channel holds that pleasure.**

**Also, I forgot to mention that this story probably does resemble another story being written right now that is Loliver centric. I have NOT read that story and this one is my own brain child, so if you notice any similarities, it is completely coincidence. Please point them out to me so I can change them. I don't want to get in trouble for plagerism or anything. :D**

**I actually got the idea for this story from an old Buffy fanfic I read a couple of years ago, not from the Loliver story. **

**Let's see...what else? Oh! This story is most definitely a JILEY story. It probably doesn't seem like it now, but it'll get there. After all, half the fun is reading all about the sexual tension and hoping and hoping for the moment they get together, right?**

**The last chapter was pretty short since it was the prologue. Hopefully this one will be long enough to make readers happy. :D**

* * *

Soft, hot tears rolled down my cheeks. My breathing was becoming increasingly complicated as I let my fear and disbelief take over me. I began to cough from crying so hard and I felt like I was going to be sick. All of a sudden, I felt Jake's arms wrap around me. He pulled me into his lap, murmuring soft words of comfort. But it didn't work. I had worked myself into hysterics and it was going to be a while before I calmed down. 

Eventually, I finally managed to calm my tears. I looked into Jake's eyes and suddenly realized just _who's_ lap I had been sitting in. I hurriedly jumped out of his lap and stomped off towards to forest.

"Miley, wait up! What's wrong?!" he shouted after me, running to catch up.

"What's wrong? _What's wrong?!_ We're stuck on an island in the middle of the ocean! What do you mean what's wrong?! I'm a little freaked out if you hadn't noticed!" Jake stepped back in shock. It was clear that I was upset, though he probably thought I was mad at him. To be honest, I was mad at myself for letting Jake see my weaknesses, for letting him see my fear. I had to be strong, because that's who I was. I was Miley Stewart, the girl who had stood up countless times in front of thousands of people and sang my heart out. I was the girl who had lost her mother and somehow managed to move past it. But more importantly, I was the one girl who had managed to resist Jake Ryan's zombie slaying charm, and I was certainly proud of it. So I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed to realize I had willingly let him take me into his arms.

I continued to walk, ignoring Jake's efforts to get me to stop, silently fuming over what had just happened. I decided to deem it a 'momentary lapse of judgment'. I was upset, and he was there, so I allowed myself to be comforted by him. That was it. Nothing more would ever occur between Jake and me. End of story. I couldn't stand his ego, and it'd only intensified when I'd been forced to tell him I was Hannah Montana to make filming the movie easier. I could still remember the day:

"_But dad!" I exclaimed as I stomped my foot in resistance._

"_No buts, Miley. You are filming this movie with Jake. It will do wonders for your career, and you know it. I've thought about this long and hard, and I think you should tell Jake your secret. He already knows you as Miley from school. It will make things so much easier while filming because you won't have to wear your wig everywhere," my dad calmly stated, with his 'final word' voice was firmly in place, "Now, go call Jake and invite him over so we can sit down and talk things out with him."_

"_Dad, I can't stand the guy! Ever since he started at Seaview, all he's done is show me what a stuck up jerk he can be. And that whole 'normal guy' thing was such a load of crap. He just wanted to show off his fame. I will NOT reveal my secret and give him another reason to spend all of his time trying to make passes at me. He's bad enough as it is, I don't need him to think he's gunna 'score' with a pop star either," I whined. I did not want to be stuck on an island for three months with Jake's ego. I had better things to do with my time. _

_But my dad didn't agree. "I'm sure what you see at school is just a front. I'd bet underneath it all, he really is just a normal guy trying to live a normal life. Now, go!" _

_I sighed in defeat, muttered, "normal my ass," under my breath and turned to head up the stairs to call him. The phone rang three times before he answered with a simple, "Hello?"_

_I almost laughed into the phone. I had expected some elaborate introduction, like, "Jake Ryan, Zombie Slayer, at your service. I slay 'em once, and if I have to, I do it again!"_

_I managed to contain my laughter, though, and responded with, "uh…Hey Jake. It's Miley."_

"_Miley? Wow, after that last encounter, I thought you officially hated me…why are you calling me?"_

_That last encounter had included me wasting a perfectly good five dollar smoothie by dumping it on his head when he asked me to go to the movies for the tenth time with the words, "Hey hot stuff. Why don't you join me this weekend for a nice romantic movie, and we'll show people exactly how a kissing scene is done." I had literally laughed out loud at that one because it was definitely the worst pick up he'd used yet. I responded with, "Hm…does it go something like this?" and then happily dumped my smoothie on his head. Needless to say, he'd left me alone for the rest of the week. _

_I sighed, bringing my attention back to the conversation at hand, "uh…I don't hate you Jake. Actually, I've decided to finally take you up on that offer to get to know you better. I was thinking maybe you could come over to my house tonight and have dinner with my family?"_

"_Really?" His voice held such hope, I almost felt bad. It seemed like he really did like me. _

"_Really. My dad and I actually have something we wanted to talk to you about." _

_I could see his face scrunching in confusion. "I've never even met your dad, Miley. What would he want to talk to me about?" _

_I decided the explanation could wait for later and cut him off by saying, "Don't worry about it now, Jake. Just be here at 5:30 for dinner, okay? Call me later for directions to my house." _

_I knew he was still confused has he cautiously said, "Okay…well, I'll see you later then?"_

"_Yeah, I'll see you later. Bye for now Jake."_

_Later that night, Jake had arrived at my house. I had made absolutely no effort to dress up because I didn't want Jake to get the wrong idea. On the other hand, Jake had decided to dress up. I smiled when I saw him. It was almost cute. Jake Ryan was not a polo guy, and here he was standing in front of me in a blue polo and khaki pants, clearly trying to make a good impression to my dad. Too bad he didn't need to. It wasn't like I planned on actually going out with him. _

_As we sat down for dinner, my dad decided to get right to the point and brought up to movie. _

"_So I hear you're leaving next month to film a movie on Ocean Island out in the Pacific Ocean, right?" My dad was always one for jumping right in. _

_Jake looked up from his food with shock on his face. "That's right Mr. Stewart. But how do you know about that? It hasn't even been released to the public yet. They wanted to keep the whole thing under wraps because they're trying to get Hannah Montana to sign and play my girlfriend in the film."_

_My dad sort of chuckled under his breath before responding, "Well, Hannah agreed. She leaves with you next month Miley will be joining you on the flight to Ocean Island." _

_Jake was definitely confused and expressed such with a "huh?"_

_I couldn't hold it any longer. I had to laugh at Jake's face. His expression was hilarious. My dad just smiled and continued explaining, "Well, you see…I know this because I know Hannah Montana. She's my daughter actually."_

"_Really? That's cool. I didn't know you had a sister, Miley," Jake directed at me._

_I rolled my eyes, "I don't have a sister Jake. We're trying to tell you that I will be on the plane with you because I will be playing your girlfriend." I paused, wishing I didn't have to say the following words, "I'm Hannah Montana, Jake. I'm filming the movie with you."_

_Jake just laughed. "Good one. I know what this is about. You just wanted to get one last laugh in at me so I would finally leave you alone. It's cool, I get it Miley. You aren't interested in me. Don't worry, I'll leave you alone. But you didn't have to go through all this trouble to get your point across. I feel pretty stupid now…"_

_That just frustrated me. "I'm not lying Jake. I'll prove it to you. Let's go!" And I pulled him up the stairs and into my room. _

"_Uh…Miley, how is this proving it to me?" his face was scrunched up in confusion again._

"_Just shut it slayer. Come here," I said and I pulled Jake into my "mini-closet" as I like to call it, preparing to show him the Hannah closet. _

_I pushed open the doors and pulled him inside. I ran over and pulled out a sparkly red top I had worn at my last concert. "Does this look familiar?" _

_Jake thought about it. "That's the shirt Hannah wore at her last concert. The one where I got to hang out with her backstage…You really are Hannah Montana?" _

"_Yup." _

"_No wonder I felt like Hannah Montana didn't like me. I thought she was just having a bad night or something…but now I know she was mean because she was you and you don't seem to like me at all."_

"_Way to put it all together ego-boy." I rolled my eyes for the twentieth time tonight, I'm sure. _

_Jake sat down on one of the chairs by the wall, as if trying to take everything in. "So…we're filming a movie together? That's kind of exciting actually." He paused, just realizing something, "Why don't you tell anyone you're Hannah Montana? That doesn't make sense at all. Don't you want to be famous? People treat you like royalty! You can have anything you want."_

_I sighed. I felt like I had explained this dozens of times, "No Jake. What I want is to share my passion of singing with the world and that's it. I don't want the fame. I just want to be a normal girl. I want people to like me because of me, not because I can sing. So I made up a secret identity. It's worked so far, and you have to promise not to tell anyone or you'll ruin everything I've worked so hard to achieve. The only reason we decided to tell you was so I wouldn't have to wear my wig all the time while we're on the island and we aren't filming." _

"_Of course, Miley, you can trust me. I know what its like to have people watch your every move. That's a pretty good idea. I wish I had thought of it first. I would love to have real friends…" _

I think I got to see that part of Jake my dad was telling me about that night. But I haven't seen it since. He left shortly after we finished dinner, and the next day at school he was back to his egotistical self.

I have to admit it was kind of nice to see that side of Jake. I sort of liked it. But the Jake Ryan I had gotten on the plane with I did not like, and I was determined to avoid him at least for the next hour while I explore the island I was currently stuck on. I would have to return to the beach eventually and reunite with him, this I knew. But for now, I needed to be alone with my thoughts.

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**So...what do you think? Please, please, please drop a review if you liked it? You don't even have to write a full sentence. Just write "yes" if you want me to write more, or "no" if you think it was horrible. See, nice and simple! **

**Ps: I'm still looking for a beta-reader if anyone is interested. Drop me a PM, kay?**


	3. Chapter 2

**So...who loved the new episode? I definitely did. I know not a lot happened, but the hug at the end just seemed so passionate to me...I couldn't help but squeal in excitement, haha. It got me all excited and energized, and this was the result. **

**I know its pretty soon after the last update...don't expect updates this fast on a regular basis haha. But I will always try to update within a few days of my last post. If I lose track, feel free to send me "hate mail."**

**On a side note, I forgot to mention the time-line of the story. We're going to push Hannah Montana back a few years, okay? So in theory, Jake Ryan didn't start attending Seaview until about the middle of their Junior year. That would make Miley 17 and Jake 18, and its the summer before their Senior year. I know its kind of weird, but I can't take the story in the direction I want to to go if they are still 14 and 15...that's just too young, ya know? In this story, Miley never admitted to liking Jake. She's still in the complete denial phase. **

**Anywho...On with the show!**

* * *

I ended up spending more than an hour exploring the island I was on. By the time I made it back to the beach I had left Jake on, the sun was setting. I looked out across the horizon, marveling in the beauty of the sunset. I felt like it was the first time I was really seeing a sunset. Living in Malibu, even if I sat on the edge of a cliff and watched the sun go down across the ocean, I could still see the dark outlines of sailboats. Here, there was nothing but a beautiful picture of pink and purple across the clear sky. It was one of the most beautiful visions I'd ever had in my entire life, and I found my self almost appreciating being stuck on this island, at least for a few minutes. 

That small pleasure lasted about four minutes.

I stepped onto the soft white sand, feeling the sun-created warmth seep into the bottom of my feet and dropped the few coconuts I had picked up off the forest floor. For the plane ride, I had been wearing flip flops. They were much more convenient when you had to step barefoot through the metal detectors. I had taken them off during my exploration, realizing the soft, cool mossy floor of the forest soothed the pain in them I had woken up with earlier that day.

As I made my way towards the shore line, I looked around for Jake, but I couldn't find him. I did a complete 180 degree turn, hoping I would spot him somewhere else along the beach, but he was no where to be found.

That was when I started to panic.

"Jake?" I asked, hoping I would hear a response. No such luck. "Jake?!" My voice was a little louder this time, but still no response. "JAKE?!" He still didn't respond. Now I was scared. I mean, being stuck on an island with Jake Ryan was one thing. Being stranded alone? Well, that was a WHOLE different thing. I definitely would rather be here with an egotistical zombie slayer than be alone. I took off running down the beach, looking for that familiar blonde head I loved to hate. I ran for at least five minutes before I reached the end of the island. My heart was pounding in fear now, and I took off in the direction I had come from, hoping I had missed something. I ran past my beginning point, still not seeing anything. I couldn't help what happened next.

Utterly terrified, I collapsed onto the sand, releasing the flood of tears I had been holding in. This was not good, at all. What was I supposed to do now? Fend for myself? I may be emotionally strong, but I was not physically strong. There was no way I was going to be able to do the things I needed to do to survive. How was I going to collect fallen logs in the forest to try to create a shelter? How was I going to try to catch fish in the ocean to feed myself? How was I going to climb up the trees to collect the coconuts I had discovered during my earlier investigation of the island?

"Miley?"

I was so worked up, I didn't hear the one thing I was desperate to hear.

"Miley? What's wrong?"

I had curled up into a ball, my arms around my knees. I was rocking back and forth, trying to figure out what I was going to do, tears still making tracks down my face.

"Miley!"

I gasped, and turned around.

"Jake!! Oh my gosh, Jake!" I threw my arms around him. I know I was all 'never gunna happen again' earlier, but right now, I was so happy to see his smiling face I couldn't have cared less who's arms I was jumping into. "Where have you been? I was absolutely terrified when I couldn't find you!"

He shrugged, "I was out in the water, trying to catch some fish. I figured its probably going to take the search and rescue crews a few days to find us…we gotta survive somehow while we're waiting," and he help up a few small fish connected by what looked like string.

I looked over his figure and realized his pants were wet from being in the water. My face puzzled in confusion. "Where did you find string at? I walked the entire island, and I didn't find any remnants of any previous inhabitant…"

Jake softly chuckled, "It's not string. It's the stems of a few leaves tied together. Individual leaves are weak, but like all things, when they're bunched together, they have more strength. When I was little, I was in boy scouts. One of the lessons we were learned involved survival in the wilderness."

I could have kissed him right then and there if it wasn't for my opinion of him and his ego.

"Boy scouts? You mean, you know how to keep us alive?!" I was ecstatic! I was going to see my family again!

"Well…sort of," was his response, and my heart dropped as he elaborated, "You see, my parents pulled me out of boy scouts so I could start filming Zombie High a few weeks after we started the wilderness survival section. I only learned about half the stuff we were supposed to learn, but at least I can feed us!"

He gave me that trademark grin, and I couldn't help but laughing.

I had long since released Jake from my arms, and we decided to make our way back to our original location on the beach. Along the way, I tried to pick up anything I felt we could use for a shelter of some sort. I picked up a few small beach logs, and then decided to trade Jake the wood for the fish so he could carry the bigger logs we were coming across.

We eventually made it back to our original location, and Jake went about trying to start a fire. It was amusing to watch, to say the least. At first, it seemed like he just didn't have all that skill he had claimed to have since he couldn't even get a little bit of smoke going by rubbing two sticks together. When he started to create smoke, I realized our beach wood was probably too wet to catch fire. I jumped up from my spot and ran into the forest, leaving a thoroughly confused Jake behind. The sun had just set, but there was still a faint glow illuminating the sky. I grabbed a few dryer pieces of wood and ran back to him.

"Here, try these. They are dryer, so it'll be easier to light them on fire," I suggested as I handed him the logs, and sure enough within five minutes we had a small fire going. Jake shoved two of the small fish onto a larger, pointier stick and held them over the fire.

"This is probably going to take a while to cook," he sighed, then changed his trail of thought. "What are we going to do about sleeping tonight? Did you find any wild animals while you were exploring earlier?"

This question I was happy to answer. "No actually, I didn't find much of anything. A few smaller animals but that was it, really. The island itself is actually pretty small. I did happen to find a beautiful waterfall somewhere around the middle of the island," I paused, remembering how much I had wanted to run under the sparkling water. "It looked like the water was pretty clean, so I figured if we can figure out how to collect water from the stream it flows into, we can boil the water with a fire and have something to drink. I was going to explore the cliff the water fell off of, but it was getting dark so I decided to head back. Maybe tomorrow I'll go look around and see if I can find a cave?"

Jake seemed to be thinking about what I had just told him. "Sounds like a plan," he finally murmured, "but what about tonight? What are we going to do tonight?"

I shrugged, "Well, if we don't have any wild animals to worry about, why don't we just sleep here on the beach? We'll be out in the open in case the rescue crew happens to fly by or something, ya know?"

Jake didn't seem to like this idea, but he finally agreed with a soft, "Okay, sure."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, each of us lost in our thoughts. I couldn't help but notice the way the orange glow of the fire cast shadows on his face, emphasizing his many features. I was pleased to realize I hadn't had to deal with ego-Jake so far. That would have made this 'castaway' thing a lot more complicated. I guess I could say I was finally getting to know the Jake my dad tried to tell me about, and I couldn't deny that it was a pleasant experience.

Jake interrupted my silent thoughts when he informed me, "I think this is about as good as we're going to get," and held the stick up to my face.

I looked at the little creatures on the stick and I had to admit they looked pretty well done. Jake pulled one off, and handed it to me. It was still a bit hot, but I ignored the burning sensation in my hand-I was too hungry to care. I roughly began to tare apart the fish, making sure I avoided eating its organs and chewed the flesh up before swallowing. Within minutes, my fish was gone and I looked up to see Jake had finished his also.

My thirst came back to me then, and I ran over to where I had dropped the coconuts earlier and carried two back over to the fire. I handed one to Jake, and placed the other in my lap. I looked around and found a small rock and began banging the coconut shell with it. Eventually, the shell cracked and the liquid inside began to seep out. I held the coconut up to my lips as I passed the rock to Jake so he could do the same and willingly swallowed the juice. It was more than welcomed by my throat, and I felt the soreness start to lessen.

I felt fatigue begin to set in and realized my body was probably exhausted from all of the walking and climbing I had done earlier that day.

"I think I'm going to try to lay down now and get some sleep, okay?" Jake looked at me and nodded.

"Let's try to stay close to the fire so we don't get too cold. I've read that it can get pretty cold out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at night," he suggested.

I wished he'd never said that. The second the word "cold" left his mouth, I realized I was wearing nothing more than a tank top and a pair of jeans. I shivered…I was cold.

"Thank you for that," I rolled my eyes, "Now I _am_ cold!"

Jake gave me a weird look and shrugged out of the jacket he'd had to foresight to wear on the plane and offered it to me.

"No, its okay," I softly declined his offer, "You were smart enough to wear a jacket, you sleep in it."

Jake shook his head, "No Miley. I'll be okay, you wear it."

I pondered his offer before another thought came to mind. I cursed myself for even considering the option, but it seemed like the best one we had.

I looked down at the sand, before softly suggesting, "Why don't we both use it? You can lie next to me and we can drape it over both of us. Then we'll both have the jacket for warmth and our body heat will help too."

Jake looked a little surprised. "Are you sure Miley? I know I'm not exactly your favorite person right now…" he trailed off.

I sighed softly and stated, "Right now, you're kind of my only person Jake, so yes, I'm sure."

Jake smiled softly and scooted across the sand until he was near me. We lay down and Jake draped his jacket over us. I turned on my side, so my back was to Jake. There was a difference in sleeping near Jake because I wanted to and because I had to. This was purely a "had to" basis, and I didn't need Jake to get any ideas.

The last thing I heard before I drifted off into a welcome sleep was a soft, "Good night, Miley."

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**It's a bit longer than the last one, but I was so excited from the episode, I couldn't stop writing. haha. Tell me what you think, yeah?? **

**Also, do yall want me to continue to use slang during dialogue, like "gunna" and "gotta"? I think it makes the characters more realistic, but if it bugs people I can start using proper enligsh. :D **


	4. Chapter 3

**Thank you so much to all of the people who have reviewed so far! I was walking around all morning at work with a permanent smile on my face because every time I'd log on to my e-mail, I'd have a new review! It was great!! haha.**

**I wanted to mention, I think I really liked the new episode from last night because we got to see a little bit of the extent of Jake's true feelings for Miley, like the part where he can't just walk out of her life and has to at least be friends with her. So cute :D **

**Mkay...here's part three. I wouldn't say this chapter needs a warning unless you're like ten years old. Then I wouldn't suggest reading it. But other than that, read away!**

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Everything was foggy, and I could feel the last dredges of sleep leaving my body. I was slowly waking up, and I wished more than anything that I could just fall back asleep. I concentrated for a minute, trying to take in my surroundings. My upper body was warm, but my toes were cold. I could feel a slight breeze running across my face, probably from the fan I always left on while I slept. I sighed, trying to settle back into sleep and snuggled into the warm body I felt against my back. Whoever it was, they sure were comfy. I felt so warm and safe laying here with what I assumed to be a guy curled up next to me. Wait a minute. I shouldn't have a guy pressed up to me. I didn't have a boyfriend or anything. _What have you gotten yourself into, Miley?!_ I was a little worried.

I opened my eyes to figure out just what the heck was going on, only to be blinded by a bright light. I gave my eyes a few minutes to adjust and realized I was staring at a sunrise. Wait...a sunrise? Why would I be able to see a sunrise from my bedroom? I quickly sat up, trying to figure out what was going on. The strong arm I had felt around my waist slid off, and I looked down to see Jake lying next to me…on sand. Sand? Why were we sleeping on sand? I paused to think for a minute and it all came back to me: the crash, waking up on the beach, exploring the island, eating the tiny fish, and hopelessly realizing I was lost somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

Crap. I was hoping it had been a dream. Well this certainly wasn't good news.

I turned my concentration back to Jake. He looked so peaceful lying on the sand. He was resting on one of his arms, his elbow protruding into the area I had been sleeping in, and I realized I had been using his bicep as a pillow. His other arm lay limply on the ground next to his stomach, where it had fallen when I'd sat up.

I blushed, realizing I had just woken up in a position that was a bit to close to him for my comfort. I was supposed to loathe him, not want to cuddle up to him. This was definitely going to create a kink in my "hate Jake at all costs" plan. I moved away from him and stood up, stretching my legs out. I'd accidentally pulled his jacket up with me when I stood, so I leaned down to cover him back up with it; I didn't need it anymore and there was no point in letting it just lie in the sand. I stood back up and looked out across the ocean, determining by the location of the sun that it couldn't be more than 6 o' clock in the morning. I walked to the shore and sat down at the barrier between the dry and wet sand, taking in the sunrise. I had nothing better to do, so I sat there watching the sunrise for about thirty minutes.

When the sun was finally overhead and there were no colors to be seen other than that of the clear blue sky, I turned back to Jake. He was still asleep. The boy was STILL asleep. It was brighter than I thought possible outside from the early morning sun and he was managing to sleep through it. _Huh, _I thought to myself, _I guess what they say about guys sleeping through anything is true. _I decided to let him sleep. As long as Jake was asleep, I didn't have to deal with him. Sure, yesterday hadn't been that bad at all, but I had no idea if Jake was going to stay nice or if he was going to revert back to ego-boy.

I thought for a minute, trying to figure out what I could do to pass the time. I could start building some sort of shelter, I figured, and then remembered the caves I was going to look for that day. Without a second thought, I jumped up from my spot on the sand and took off towards the forest.

It didn't take me long to find the waterfall I had located the previous day. I walked around the stream and started to examine the cliff the water fell off of. I probably spent a good fourty-five minutes looking at every nook and cranny I could find in the giant rock. But I was unable to find anything that would even pass as a small cave. Bummed, I made my way to the edge of the stream and rolled up my pant legs. I carefully dipped my feet into the water, pleased to find it was not cold like I had expected. The water wasn't hot of course, but it was pleasant. Instantly, the tension that had built up in my legs from climbing across the waterfall's rocks started to lessen.

I sat for a few minutes, still pondering the idea of running through the waterfall. Eventually, I managed to convince myself that running through the waterfall sounded like a _very_ good plan. The only problem was I didn't want to get my clothes wet. They were the only thing I had to wear, and wet jeans were way too uncomfortable to deal with. I thought about it for a minute, trying to decide if I could actually do what I wanted to do. I was a bit shy about my body, and even though I knew the only person around for thousands of miles was Jake, who was still sleeping soundly at the beach, I didn't like the idea of stripping out of my clothes to jump into the water. _Just get over it, Miley. No one will see you!_ I tried to tell myself. I finally decided it was now or never, and moved to pull my tank top over my head. I folded it up and laid it on a dry rock near by. My bra followed, then my pants and my panties. I folded them all and laid them on the rock with my tank top.

I moved closer to the banks of the stream and slowly waded into the warm water. It felt amazing. Every little ache and pain I had been experiencing for the last day seemed to flow out of my body with the current of the stream. I felt like I was floating on a cloud and I quickly dunked my head under the water, getting my hair wet. I figured I could make some sort of effort to clean myself up while I was standing naked in the water. I resurfaced, releasing my breath and rubbing the water out of my eyes. Pleased with the experience so far, I turned my attention to the waterfall. With pure joy in my eyes, I swam towards it and found myself floating in the water just underneath it, water droplets splashing all around me. I reveled in the feeling of the water softly hitting my head; it was like a personal massage. I did a few twirls, simply taking in the beauty of standing underneath the fall before letting out a stream of giggles. I hadn't felt this care free in years.

I continued to twirl around, playing in the water until a loud _crack_ reached my ears. I instantly stopped my movements, and turned towards the sound of the crack. I couldn't see anything big enough to make a twig snap that loud. I started to get worried and scanned the area I was looking at, yearning to find something to blame the noise on. I got a little scared thinking about what else could be on this island that I hadn't noticed the night before.

All of a sudden, I saw Jake's familiar head come running through the trees. I gasped, realizing I was in a very revealing position.

My arms crossed over my chest as I yelled out, "Stop it right there, Mr. Zombie Slayer!"

Apparently Jake couldn't hear me because he just kept running. I briefly wondered if I should be scared that he was running from _something_ but for some reason, I was more worried about being seen by Jake.

"Miley?!" I finally heard him yell out as he got nearer to the shore.

"Jake! Stop running! Stand still!"

He still didn't hear me.

I braced myself for what I knew was coming next, and turned my body so that he would only see my back when he finally managed to reach the stream.

"Miley?! Miley, where are…" I knew he had found me when he muttered, "Whoa…"

"NOW can you hear me?!" I was furious, "Don't you know how to listen, boy?!" I refused to turn around and release my full anger until I knew I could safely put my clothes back on.

"uh….um…." he was clearly a little embarrassed by the situation.

"Just turn around so I can put my clothes back on!" I exclaimed.

I heard the rustling of leaves, but no 'go ahead' to get dressed. I carefully turned my head slightly to see if he had listened. When I realized he had, I quickly swam over to the rock I had left my clothes on and pulled my pants and tank top on. I grabbed my bra and panties, deciding to wait until I was dryer to put those on. Luckily, I was wearing one of my bigger tank tops, so Jake wouldn't be able to see anything if I left my bra off.

Still fuming, I ran up to him and smacked the back of his head.

"Ow! What the heck was that for?!" he turned to me, his previous shock replaced by anger.

"For not listening! I saw you coming from a mile away and I tried to get you to stop, but you couldn't even hear me, dummy!"

Jake looked down at his feet, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry Miley," he finally muttered, "But, you know how you were all scared when you couldn't find me yesterday? Well when I woke up earlier and you weren't next to me, I didn't think anything of it. When I woke up a few hours later and you still weren't next to me, I kinda freaked too."

He finally looked up at me, and connected with my eyes. "I knew you were going to look for caves today, and I thought you might have slipped on the wet rocks and knocked yourself unconscious of something. I guess in my worry, I tuned everything else out. I was so intent on finding this stream and making sure you hadn't drowned, I completely ignored everything else." He held up his arms to make his point, and I realized they were covered in scratch marks from the branches of the trees and bushes he had been running through.

Immediately, any anger I had dissipated.

"Oh Jake, I'm so sorry. I just wanted to take a swim in the stream after I looked for caves. When I woke up earlier you were out cold and I was bored. I guess I lost track of time because I was _having_ such a good time."

He shrugged, and it looked like he was finally calming down.

"Its okay, but now I know why you were so upset yesterday. The thought of being left alone on this island absolutely terrified me…my hands started shaking and everything."

I sighed, "Yeah…yesterday wasn't such a good day. Let's head back to the beach."

We began to make out way back to the shoreline. I had decided to lead so I could push branches out of the way. Jake's arms were all bruised up, and I didn't want them to get any worse.

When we made it back to the shoreline, I decided to lie out for a while to see if I could get my tank top and jeans to dry out from wearing them while I was wet. Jake began rinsing his scrapes with the ocean water, I guess hoping the salt would disinfect them. I sighed, watching him wince in pain.

I stood up and slowly walked over to him.

"Here, let me help you," I softly murmured, taking one of the arms in my hand. I cupped my other hand with water and carefully poured it over his cuts. His eyes scrunched in pain, and I leaned down to gently blow on it. It took a few minutes, but the cool air seemed to ease the pain. We went about this for a few minutes, me pouring, then blowing.

Finally after I had washed all of the blood off, I murmured, "I'm really sorry I scared you so much Jake. I didn't think about how you'd feel…"

He leaned over to hug me. "It's okay Miley. You didn't know I was going to wake up."

Our eyes met, and a silent agreement was made between us. We would try our hardest to be acceptable to the other person, deliberately taking their thoughts into account before acting. I hoped this meant the end of ego-Jake for good, but only time would tell.

Jake smiled softly and gently said, "Now, let's go build us a house."

I laughed, knowing full well we were not going to build a house, but nodded my agreement and we stood up and made out way back towards the forest, silently pondering how we were going to create a shelter out of almost nothing.

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**So? What do you think? I didn't get a chance to respond to a lot of reviews for Ch. 2 because I was at work all morning and I only had time to jump online and read the reviews, but I should have time to respond to reviews for this chapter.**

**Make me proud, eh?**


	5. Chapter 4

**Well, here it is: Chapter 4. **

**We're going to venture into Jake's point of view for the first part of this chapter. I've never been inside a guy's mind, so I hope I did it justice, haha. **

**I should probably remind everyone that this story is rated T for a reason, and that I made Miley and Jake older for a _reason_. Anywho...I'm pretty sure most of you will like this chapter. You'll have to tell me if I'm correct though. ;D**

**With that said...Enjoy!**

**BTW, a "sagger" is one who "sags," meaning they wear they're pants below the waist line. I couldn't figure out how to explain that in the story without making it sound funny, since I completely created the word myself out of the word "sags," haha. **

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_Jake's POV_

I silently followed Miley back up the shoreline towards the forest, where I assumed we were going to look for supplies to build a shelter, pondering what she could be thinking about and secretly hoping it was me. She was absolutely beautiful and I'd be flat out lying if I denied I liked her. Hell, I'd probably liked her since I'd laid eyes on her my first day at Seaview. She was like nothing I'd ever seen before. At the time, I'd mistaken my like for dislike because well…she was never exactly nice to me, ya know?

It had taken me a while, but I'd finally realized I was practically in love with the girl simply because she didn't seem to like me at all. She never followed me around like all of the other girls, and not once did I catch her glancing at me in class. It was completely different from the way I had been treated by any other girl, and I liked it. I don't know what had happened along the way, but I had found myself crushing on the one girl I would probably never have.

I sighed softly, and glanced at her out of the corner of my eyes. She had a slight smile on her face, and I was more than curious why it was there. I knew I'd probably never find out, and turned my attention back to my own thoughts. Looking down at my arms, I realized the skin around my cuts was still slightly swollen. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to rinse them with salt water, but I'd always thought it was a good way to disinfect things. There was still a slight stinging sensation, but the gentle air Miley had blown onto the cuts had lessened the pain a ton. It would be a few days before the pain completely subsided, but I wasn't too worried about that. I was still happy I had found Miley alive, and I had to admit I definitely did not mind the scene I had accidentally stumbled upon. I know it sounds weird, but Miley had a hot back. I silently laughed at my self. I probably sounded desperate, admiring Miley's back like I was. I could just imagine her reaction if voiced my thoughts out loud.

"_Hey Miley? I just wanted to let you know I found your back attractive earlier. It really 'turned me on' if you know what I mean," _and then I would wink my left eye at her, in trademark Jake fashion.

Then she would turn to me and say_, "You have got to be the weirdest, most obnoxious, most sexually perverted person I've ever met!" _And she would go storming off into the woods in anger.

Nope, definitely not a good idea. I laughed at myself loud enough for Miley to hear and she turned to me with questioning eyes.

I hurried to find an excuse for my laughter. "Uh…I was, uh, thinking about that time I ran into Lilly, Oliver and you at the beach and Oliver said something really funny and it made me laugh really hard and…it was really funny!…" was the best I could do for some reason.

"What time?" she asked innocently, clearly suspicious of my explanation.

"Don't worry about it, it's not important. We need to start trying to build a shelter of some kind. It was too cold last night to sleep without cover again tonight," I said, cutting her off as we reached the woods, "Let's split up for a few minutes. I'll look for more logs, and you can look for something we can try to make a roof out of and a way to tie the logs together for the walls, okay?"

Miley looked at me with her suspicious eyes before shrugging her shoulders in a 'sure, why not?' kind of way and took off into the forest.

We met up again about ten minutes later. I had found a few more logs that looked light enough to be lifted vertically, and Miley had found a bunch of large palm leaves, as well as, a bunch of long strands of grass.

"This was about the only thing I could find that looked even remotely capable of tying something together." She looked downhearted as she informed me about this.

I pondered the long, thin strands of grass before deciding, "Well, the grass itself doesn't look very strong, but you know what they say about strength in numbers." I was referring to the way I had tied the leaf stems together the night before to string my captured fish on.

Miley shrugged again in response. She seemed to be pretty down for some reason, but I couldn't figure out why. Maybe the idea of being stuck on the island was _really_ sinking in and it was finally starting to affect her. I made a mental note to see if she would talk to me about it later, before I turned away from her and set about trying to build a shelter. Right now, we had to worry about creating a place to sleep. After we had done that, I could worry about Miley.

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_Miley's POV_

This was _so_ not working. I plopped down on the sand, crossed my knees Indian style and continued to observe Jake. He was trying desperately hard to tie together pieces of wood with the long pieces of grass I had found on the other side of the island. I had been skeptical when I had collected them, thinking they would never work, but we had nothing else to use to hold our "house" together, so we decided to at least try to make it work.

However, I had long since become frustrated and decided to give Jake a chance to see if he could figure things out by himself. Observing him lasted five minutes, at the most, before I got bored. He was clearly making no progress, so I stood up and wandered off towards the shore. Along the way, I picked up a large empty sea shell, admiring its beauty. I sat down again, and began scooping a hole into the sand next to me, trying to pass the time. I would glance up at Jake every once in a while, trying to determine if he'd made any progress.

So far we had been able to build…well, nothing actually. We had assembled a 'floor' for our shelter by laying logs next to each other on the sand, but that was about it. Of course, we had had all sorts of ideas, ranging from trying to stack the logs horizontally like a log cabin to trying to prop them up against each other in some sort of 'modernized' form of a teepee. Nothing had worked. The truth was, we simply had no way to get the logs to stand up straight on the logs we had laid down for the floor. Without a saw of some sort to even out the bottom of the logs we wanted to stand vertically for the walls, it probably wasn't ever going to happen. We needed something that would mold around the vertical logs; something we could mold around them to help them stand up. I was still digging my hole, trying to think up knew ideas when it hit me.

Why hadn't I realized it before?! I jumped up and looked for another sea shell. I found a fairly large one and ran over to Jake, excitement evident on my face.

"I've got it! I've figured it out! I know how to build the walls, Jake!"

He looked up at me, confused. I could tell he was trying to keep himself from getting excited in case my brilliant idea was another let down. "How? I'm open to anything at this point…"

"The _sand!_ It's all about the sand! We're stuck on an island practically covered in the stuff! We gotta make it work for our situation!"

He was still confused, but he looked a bit more excited than he had previously. "I'm listening. What's your amazing plan?"

I smiled widely, before filling him in on my revelation. "We use the sand to hold the logs up! All we have to do is dig a trench deep enough in the sand to help the log balance itself out. Then, we stand the logs up in the trench, and fill the sand into the cracks. We won't have to worry about trying to find a way to keep the logs standing, because the sand will do it for us! Don't you see it?!" I was practically yelling at Jake, I was so excited.

He seemed to think about it for a few minutes, before realizing my idea might actually work. "Okay," he said after a few minutes, a smile forming on his face, "Let's try it. But what are we going to dig into the sand with? We'll hurt out hands if we try to use them."

My smile grew bigger as I showed him the sea shells I had been hiding behind my back to surprise him with. "They aren't real shovels, but they'll do the trick. We'll just have to be careful to not apply to much pressure to them so they don't break."

Jake laughed in excitement. "You are a genius! Let's do it!" He grabbed the larger sea shell and fell onto his knees in the sand. I fell right next to him and we spent the next hour and a half trying to dig a trench deep enough to support the logs and long enough to make one wall of a shelter big enough for us to sleep in.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Jake dropped his shell. He was sweating through his tee shirt, and it….SO did not look good. I had to stop that train of thought right then and there. If I had finished that sentence with "absolutely amazing" I would have had to hang myself for treason or something. Oh no, Jake's sweaty self was not something to look at, at all. In fact, it was quite disgusting, I proudly proclaimed to myself.

"Uh…Miley? Why are you nodding?"

I froze in embarrassment, realizing I had been nodding my head yes in support of my internal thoughts.

"I'm just humming a Hannah tune in my head!" I said a little too quickly, and this time it was Jake's turn to be suspicious.

"Okay then…" he trailed off before reaching down to the bottom of his tee shirt.

I knew what was coming next, and I wanted it and dreaded it all at the same time. Slowly, but surely, he pulled his tee shirt over his head, dropping it in the sand next to him and revealing to me a completely bare chest.

I gulped. Oh shit…this was NOT good. I couldn't help but sit there and stare at his now exposed chest. It was gorgeous, to say the least. My eyes traveled downward, taking in his abdomen. He _obviously_ did some sort of work out on a regular basis. I had never thought Jake to be the work out type, but my opinion had definitely changed the second he took that shirt off. To say that he had muscles would be an understatement. He was perfect. He wasn't too fit, but I couldn't detect an ounce of fat anywhere on his stomach. I could easily make out the traces of his six-pack and my heart sped up just thinking about what he had done to make his abdomen look like _that_. I let my eyes drop a little further, realizing that Jake was a 'sagger.' There was no other way to put it. He wore his pants low enough for his boxers to peak out from the top, and his boxers were pretty low too. I could easily make out his V-cuts…and blushed thinking about what they lead to.

I had to stop this train of thought before I completely corrupted my mind. I hastily dropped my sea shell also before jumping up. Jake looked up at me in surprise. He must have noticed my red cheeks, because he smirked a little before he calmly asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yep!" my voice definitely came out as a squeak. This was not good at all. Nope. Not good.

His smirk grew larger as he questioned, "Are you sure? You look a little flushed. Is the heat getting to you?"

Oh yeah, the heat was getting to me, but it wasn't because of the sun. Oh no…the heat that was affecting me was purely an internal reaction to those abs.

"Psh…of course I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be? Now that you mention it though, it is pretty hot out here. Why don't I go look for some more coconuts for us to drink so we don't get dehydrated!" and I took off towards the forest.

In all honesty, I simply had to get myself away from that amazing sight or I was afraid I was going to jump Jake right then and there. That would have definitely ruined my 'I hate Jake' mind frame. What I needed now was to go jump in the stream I had swam in yesterday. I needed something nice and cool to calm me down and stop all these strange reactions my body was having in response to Jake's body, like that little tingly sensation in the pit of my stomach. That definitely had to stop. I knew I couldn't jump into the stream again without risking Jake seeing me, so I settled for walking around for a few minutes to calm myself down. When I finally felt like I wasn't going to attack Jake like some wild animal in heat the next time I saw him, I found two more coconuts and made my way back to the beach.

As I was walking, I remembered that Jake had been smirking at me the whole time he was trying to 'make sure I was okay.' I paused, realizing he had known I was going to freak out when I saw him shirtless. He had _wanted_ me to freak out. He had even found it amusing. If I wasn't still consumed with the vision of his abs, I probably would have been furious with him. Instead, an evil smile made its way onto my face. _Well if that's the way Jake wants to play, _I declared to myself, _then let the games begin!_

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**You have to keep in mind that they're older teens for this chapter to not seem completely innapropriate, haha. Like I said, they're older for a reason. So...honest opinions, please! Did you like it? Did you hate it? I'm dying to know!**


	6. Chapter 5

**You guys are AMAZING! When I got home from class, I was all bummed because I'd only received like three reviews for the last chapter. But then I layed down for a nap (yes, its okay to take naps in college...thats the only way to survive, haha), and when I woke up (after a very nice two hour nap), I had like eleven new ones!! I was super excited!! Thank you soooo much!**

**So, without further ado, and because you guys are SO awesome, Chapter 5!**

**It's not the best one...it took me like all day to type it because I couldn't get it quite right, but I think it's at least sufficient. Anywho...on you read!**_

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_Miley's POV_

When I stepped back onto the beach, I noticed Jake had made progress on our shelter. He was still shirtless of course, but whether that made me happy or infuriated me, I could not decide. On the one hand, I definitely wasn't complaining about the view. On the other, it would be a whole lot harder for me to concentrate now. This was going to be interesting.

"Oh Miley, you're back," Jake observed as I walked towards him on the beach. He still had his smirk on, but I was determined to resist him. Now that I knew he wanted a reaction from me, I wasn't going to give it to him.

I looked over the progress he'd made. "Wow, you got a lot done. I didn't realize I was gone so long." Jake was almost done digging the second trench for the second wall of our shelter. He just shrugged. "I _really _don't want to sleep out in the open again tonight. I figured I couldn't wait for you to get back in case you were gone all day again like yesterday, so I started working without you."

He went back to digging, and I sat down with a rock to try to break open the coconuts like I had done the night before. It didn't take long before both of them had cracks big enough to drink out of and I walked over to Jake and handed him one.

"Thanks," was all he said as he began to drink. After a few minutes, he continued his thoughts. "You know it is kind of hot out here…I hope you don't mind that I took my shirt off. It was making me a lot hotter."

I had to divert my eyes away from his before I could respond.

"Of course I don't mind." If I said anything else, I was going to tell him just what I thought of the view he had given me.

"Good…" he said as he looked at me with suggestive eyes, "I wouldn't want to make you…uncomfortable or anything."

"No uncomfortable feelings here." I tried to smile reassuringly, but I was pretty sure it came out more like a painful grimace, "Let's get back to our shelter, yeah?"

Jake nodded and I picked up the sea shell I had been using earlier. I moved over to where he was digging and began digging also. Before long, we felt we had made a trench sufficient enough to hold our second wall.

"Why don't we start standing the logs into the trench?" I suggested. "That way, we'll be able to figure out if my idea actually works."

"Alright, let's give it a shot," he agreed.

We walked over to the pile of logs and together we picked up a shorter log. We had decided to use the shorter logs for the walls. Our shelter wouldn't have a very high roof, but it would be easier to balance the short logs in the sand than it would longer ones. Carefully placing one end into the beginning of the first trench, we pushed the log until it was standing straight up.

"Hold on to this one real quick while I go grab another log to stick next to it," Jake commanded before running off to get a second log.

He came back a few minutes later with another log and stood it next to the one I was holding up.

"Should we try to fill in the sand and see if it supports the first two before we continue?" he asked.

"Yeah, probably," was my response and Jake kneeled down at the base of the logs and began pushing sand into the trench. He ended up right underneath my arms at one point as he filled in sand, giving me a perfect view of his back, and I did not complain. That boy even had muscles on his back! I spent the five minutes he used to fill in sand underneath me openly staring at his shoulder muscles, watching them move underneath his skin. It made my mouth water. He was so going to get what was coming to him, and it was going to pure fun.

After a few minutes, he stepped back and told me to release the logs. I did just that and carefully stepped back, prepared to catch the logs if they began to fall. To my surprise, and extreme joy, they stood tall and proud without my support.

I started jumping up and down, squealing in excitement.

"It worked! I can't believe it actually worked!!" I yelled at Jake who was laughing at my antics.

"Yes it did, and you are my new hero." He held his arms open to me in a congratulatory hug, and I quickly jumped into them. I was still so excited about our success I didn't even think to consider the situation I had just put myself in.

I almost stopped breathing as I felt Jake's strong chest against mine. Sure, we had hugged before, but this somehow seemed different. Maybe it was because he was shirtless, and I could clearly see what I was pressed up against. One thing I did know was that I definitely liked the feeling of him pressed against me. I drew back a little bit, looking into Jake's eyes. His normally green eyes seemed to have darkened, and I realized he was breathing heavier. Looking into his dark eyes, so full of desire made my breath hitch and I felt that tingly sensation in the pit of my stomach again. My arms were around his neck, and his hands were on my hips. I could feel bursts of electricity coursing through my body, originating from the location of his hands. I felt him grip my hips harder as he began slowly pulling me towards him. His eyes fluttered shut and he tilted his head, moving his lips closer to mine. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it was going to stop working any second.

"We should build the rest of our shelter." I had not wanted to say those words, but I couldn't seem to stop myself. It was too soon. Twenty-four hours ago, I hated Jake with a passion. If I let him kiss me as much as I wanted to now, I knew I would only end up confusing myself.

Plus, I still had to get my revenge.

Jake froze. "Of course," he whispered as he released me from his arms. His voice was husky and full of desire. He carefully took a step back from me, placing much needed distance between us. "I'm sorry," he tried to say, but I cut him off.

"Don't worry about it. We were both caught in the excitement of the moment," I said, as I placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. His eyes met mine, and I realized they were back to green. "Let's finish building, okay?" I softly suggested and Jake agreed, as we made our way over to the lumber pile to pick up more logs.

_

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_

_Jake's POV_

I followed Miley over to our pile of logs, cursing myself for what I had just let happen. My plan had been to slowly break down the barriers between her and me, not to jump right in like that. I don't know what had come over me. Having her pressed up against my bare chest like that had been…beyond words. I had been overcome with desire as she pressed herself against me, wrapping her arms around my neck. Of their own accord, my hands had gone to her hips, gently holding her against me. When she'd pulled back and I'd found myself staring into those deep blue eyes, I'd lost it. There was no other way to put it. Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected had lost his calm, his cool and his collection.

I silently thanked Miley for stopping me from doing what I wanted so desperately to do. I knew she had previously hated me, and I wanted her to like me as a friend before I tried to convince her to like me as anything more.

It was a while before either of us spoke again. I was afraid to talk, fearing I would mention what had just happened, and I knew Miley was having the same problem. I clearly had an effect on her, as I had happily learned when I'd taken my shirt off earlier. Watching her squirm had been the most fun I'd had in a while, and I couldn't help the smirk that had appeared on my face when I'd noticed her reaction. It definitely made me feel good, knowing I had the ability to render the girl speechless.

We went about erecting the walls of our shelter in silence, Miley holding the logs, me filling in the sand. It was a system, and it was taking a while, but it was working. I would estimate it took us about two hours to get the first two walls put up, but when we were finally done, we stepped back to admire our efforts with immense pride.

"We managed to build two walls," I said, looking at Miley, "Do you think we can build the other two?"

"Psh…I don't think, I know," I could have laughed at her confidence, "But you want to know what else I know? I'm starving!"

This time I did laugh. "Now that you mention it, I'm pretty hungry too. I still have some fish from last night. Why don't we start another fire, and I'll cook two more?"

She nodded and we turned towards the fire pit I had created last night. It took a few minutes, but I managed to get another fire started and I repeated the process I went through last night.

"I think its about 3 o clock in the afternoon," I said to create conversation as I started roasting the fish.

"How do you know?" Miley asked as she looked towards me.

"The sun," I pointed at its location. "It's too low for it to be noon, but not super low, so it looks like it's about three."

"I see...Well that's good news. We still have plenty of time to finish our shelter before it gets dark." Miley paused, a grin creeping up onto her face. "Wow, its getting really hot out here."

She proceeded to stand up and pull at the edge of her tank top. She pulled it up to just underneath her chest, and reached behind her to tie a knot to keep it in place. When she dropped her hands, my eyes followed and landed on her taught stomach. Damn. I knew she was skinny, it'd take an idiot to not notice that, but she was fit, too. My cheeks flushed as I stared at her tight, tan stomach. She had one of those tan tattoos, you know, the ones where you lay a shaped cut out on your tummy so the sun tans around it? It was situated on her left hip bone, and shaped like lips. Oh yeah, I definitely wanted to kiss _those_ lips. My breathing was getting sporadic, like it had been earlier when she hugged me.

"Are you okay, Jake?" Miley smiled sweetly at me. "You seem to be breathing kind of heavy…is the heat affecting you now?"

"I'm…fine. I think I accidentally inhaled some smoke off the fire," and I pretended to cough.

I looked up at her face to find her smirking at me, "Oh good, I wouldn't want you to pass out from heat exhaustion or anything." She had deepened her voice, making it soft and sultry. It was definitely turning me on. She sat back down, and I realized she had pulled the top of her tank top down farther, exposing her ample cleavage. She leaned forward to poke at the fire with a stick, giving me a clear view of the top of her chest. Miley had never had a big chest, something I didn't mind at all. But she definitely wasn't small. I gulped. My body was reacting in completely inappropriate ways. I had to get her to stop her actions before I completely lost any sense of coherent thought.

"Oh look!" I suddenly exclaimed, loudly. Miley jumped back in surprise.

"What is it?" she questioned, curious.

"The fish! They're done cooking! Look at that…nice, roasted fish all ready for us to eat." I moved to hand her the stick, "You hold this while I go look for more coconuts."

So it was the same excuse she had used earlier, but it was a good excuse. I hurried off towards the forest, hoping she wouldn't notice just _how_ my body had reacted to her. I glanced back once last time before I disappeared into the forest, only to find her smiling widely, and nodding at herself as if she had just done something wonderful. So that's what this was about. She was trying to get revenge for making her squirm earlier.

I paused, thinking about her antics, and then laughed. She had done a pretty good job; I had to give her props. But this game was far from over.

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**It's war now. I've gotten a couple of good ideas from reviews that I'll probably be incorporating into the next few chapters...it might take a while to get them worked in, but it should happen. Keep your eyes open. :D **

**This is the part where you leave your love. Or hate. Whichever suits you best! Thanks!**

**-Krissy**


	7. Chapter 6

**So...I've been stranded on my couch for the last two hours with my laptop waiting for the carpet to dry because we just got it cleaned. I couldn't fight the urge to write a new chapter, even though I should be doing my homework for my Spanish class tonight. Bad news for me, GREAT news for you. :D**

**I'm going to have to slightly speed things up. It took like four chapters to get through just their first day on the island, and unless I want to write like 100 chapters (and I really don't) things have to start happening, haha.**

**Anyways, read on my valiant...readers? haha. I hope you like this chapter. It made me smile when I was writing it. **

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It took us most of the rest of the day to complete the walls of the shelter. Just as the sun was setting, we stepped back to admire our work. We had managed to build what I could only describe as a hut. It was about seven feet long, and five feet wide, with a small entrance facing the ocean. We couldn't figure out a way to make a door for the entrance, so we had hung the long strands of grass we hadn't used over it to try to keep the cold air of the nights out. It wasn't much, but it was better than sleeping out in the open. Sure it wasn't too big, but it was big enough for Jake to lie comfortably, and wide enough for us to sleep next to each other without being too close. 

Space was definitely what we needed. I had realized the extent of Jake's desire for me with his reaction to my revenge. I'd almost felt bad for him as I'd watched him walk off towards the forest…he'd looked to be in some serious pain. He deserved it though, making my mouth water at his beautifully sculpted chest like that. I couldn't help but congratulate myself as my eyes followed him to the forest. I was a little surprised though. I mean, I knew the boy liked me, but I didn't realize he felt that strong for me.

But why? I mean, I had never been nice to him. In fact, I was downright evil when it came to Jake Ryan. If I was him, I would have moved on a loooong time ago. So what was keeping him stuck on me? It wasn't like I was pretty or anything. I mean sure, I had some looks, but no one had ever told me I was like gorgeous or anything. It was just weird.

I wanted to continue to ponder the topic of Jake's affection for me, but right now wasn't the time. Right now, we needed to create a roof for our hut.

"So…we've got four walls. What about a roof?" Jake asked from his position next to me in front of the hut. It was like he had read my mind.

"Well…" I smiled at him, "That's what these are for." And I ran over to where I had dropped the large palm leaves earlier. "I figured we could sort of drape them across the top. It wouldn't be a lot of support if it rained or something, but it'll work for now."

"Sounds like it'll work," Jake agreed as he took the palm leaves from my hand. He stood on his tip toes and began laying the leaves across the top. After a few minutes, he stepped back and we looked over the finished project.

"I can't believe we just managed to build a place to sleep without any kind of man made tools." He sounded like he was in awe at what we had done.

"Yeah…we are pretty skilled, aren't we?"

He looked at me and laughed. "Yeah, I guess we are." He gave me this amazing smile, and I felt my heart melt. He had never smiled at me like that before, and it was beautiful. It was soft and timid, not the giant, toothy smile he wore around other people. Was this another part of the other side of Jake? He looked genuinely happy, not like he was putting on a front, and I liked it.

I suggested we start cooking dinner, and Jake nodded his agreement. We walked over to the fire we had used for the fish earlier. It had been my brilliant idea to keep it going all afternoon, that way we wouldn't have to worry about restarting it when we were ready to eat dinner. Jake went about roasting the fish, and I drifted back to my thoughts. After a few minutes, he interrupted my silent ponderings with a soft question.

"How long do you think it's going to take them to find us?" His voice was small, and he sounded worried.

"It shouldn't take more than a few days," I pondered verbally, "With all that new GPS technology, I'm sure they have already pinpointed the exact location of the crash. The currents couldn't have carried us that far away…we would have drowned if we'd stayed unconscious in the water for too long, don't ya think?"

"Yeah…I guess you're right. I'm just afraid. What if they decide the plain crash was too horrific for anyone to survive and don't send out rescue crews?"

"I highly doubt that. For one, I know my daddy wouldn't let them just not look for us. He's a _very _persuasive man. Plus, we're two of the most famous teens on the face of the earth. If they didn't send anyone to look for survivors from the plane we were on, they would have to deal with the anger of thirteen year olds across the United States." I tried to reassure Jake, hoping to reassure myself in the process. The truth was, I was absolutely terrified. What if Jake was right and they never sent anyone to look for us? I didn't want to be stuck on this island for the rest of my life, if we even managed to make it that long.

Jake must have noticed the apprehension on my face, because he slid over to me in the sand and put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me close to him. I didn't even care anymore. There was no one else around for miles and there was no point in denying ourselves small comforts such as these. That's all it was after all, a small comfort and nothing more.

"I'm sure you're right. I didn't mean to freak you out or anything." It was Jake's turn to reassure me. "Is that why you were so down earlier?"

I looked up at him, surprised he had noticed me upset earlier, because I'd only been upset for about thirty minutes.

"Yeah…I was hoping this would all be a dream, but when we actually started trying to make a shelter, the reality of it all set in. I was a little bummed," was my soft response.

"Well…at least you're stuck here with me!" he said to try to lighten the mood. Before today, I probably would have replied with some off-handed insult like, 'and that's a good thing how?' But things had changed. I was getting to see the side of Jake I'd wanted to see all along, and I figured saying something harsh like that would ruin my chances to see any more of it.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. At least I know you…and we seem to be making a good team." Jake looked at me slightly shocked.

"What? That was it?" He looked a little let down.

"What are you talking about? I figured you'd be happy with my response."

I laughed at the look on his face when he responded. "Sorry, but my days just aren't complete with a little ego-busting courtesy of Miley Stewart. Now, respond with some smart-ass remark so I know its still you," he commanded.

I giggled a little, before replying with my earlier option, "Okay fine. Being stuck here with you is supposed to be a good thing how?"

He just smiled widely and said, "Because, I'm THE Jake Ryan."

"And you've got a big head."

"Of course I do. But that's why you love me!" His voice was confident.

I blushed at the word 'love.' I definitely did not love Jake Ryan, but for some reason, I could see it happening.

I probably should have let things drop there, but I was having fun with the familiar back and forth banter we had gone through every day since I'd met him. "No, no, no. That's why you _think_ I love you. Just like how you think every one in the world is obsessed with you and your weird TV show."

"Ahhh, but you are mistaken, Miss Miley. I happen to _know_ everyone else in the world is obsessed with me. Just like I know you happen to be secretly in love with me. You just don't know it, yet. But don't worry, you will soon."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" That had been an awfully straight forward remark. It kind of made me a little flushed.

"It means…well I don't really know what it means. It just sounded like a good response, all dramatic like, ya know?" And he winked at me.

I was laughing hard now as I looked Jake in the eyes. I paused a minute, before I whispered, "Yeah, I think I know." I wasn't referring to his dramatic response.

He stopped laughing as he looked at me, searching my eyes for what that small remark meant. He managed to find the meaning somewhere, because he broke into that beautiful smile again. "That's all I needed to hear," he softly replied before pulling the fish out of the fire.

"Tomorrow, lets go collect a bunch of coconuts and store them in our spiffy new hut, so I don't have to go looking for them every time we eat," I suggested as I got up to go find two more coconuts, yet again.

"Sure thing, boss lady!" he yelled after me as I disappeared into the forest.

I slowly walked the familiar paths I had created, watching the ground for coconuts and thought about what had just happened. If I wasn't mistaken, I was pretty sure I had just told Jake he had a chance. I paused, wondering if that had been such a good idea. I decided it had been. Maybe, just maybe, I would see more of normal Jake because of it, since he wouldn't have to try so hard to achieve my affections. I hoped so. That smile was to die for, and I wanted nothing more than to see it much more often.

I picked up two coconuts and made my way back to the shore.

"I waited to eat until you got back." Jake commented as I sat down next to him again.

I was a little surprised at the small gesture, but said a quick, "Thank you," and went about eating.

After I was done, I laid back in the sand, looking up at the stars. I gasped as I took in the sight. As a little girl growing up in Tennessee, one of my favorite things to do had been looking at the stars. The view was always amazing, because there were never a lot of street lights to mess it up. I used to do it all the time with my mom before she passed. It had been our thing, and whenever I looked at the stars, I felt like I was looking up at her. When we had moved to Malibu, I was crushed to realize the smog from Los Angeles obscured the crystal clear view of the stars I had come to rely on to help me through rough times. But laying here, looking up at the stars, I was amazed by a view that was clearer than anything I had ever seen, even in Tennessee.

"Jake, you've got to see this," I spoke quietly, as if my voice would scare the stars away. I grabbed his arm, and pulled him down next to me.

"Wow. I've never seen so many stars," he softly said next to me.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

I felt him nod next to me, and knew now was not the time for words. Now was the time for silence, as we lay next to each other admiring the natural beauty of the universe, silently pondering the new level we had just reached in our friendship.

Before I knew it, I was drifting off to sleep, and I didn't fight it.

What seemed like seconds later, I felt myself being lifted into the air. I groggily opened my eyes, to find Jake softly smiling down at me.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

I just nodded, and closed my eyes again, resting my head against his chest. I felt myself being lulled back to sleep by the gentle rhythm his walking created as he carried me to our new sleeping place. He had to set me down so I could crawl into the hut because it wasn't tall enough for us to stand up in. I made my way inside, and Jake followed. I immediately lay back down next to the wall farthest from the ocean, and turned my back to Jake. I pretended to fall back asleep. I was too comfortable with what had just happened to shatter the memories with words. I was seconds from sleep when I felt Jake move beside me. He was laying his jacket over me, and I couldn't help the smile that appeared on my face.

What happened next surprised me even more though. As I felt him lay back down, he pressed his chest against my back, and slid his arm around my stomach. If he had known I was still awake, he would have never even thought about doing that, and I definitely would have told him he needed to move his arm. But he thought I was asleep and I liked having his arm draped across me, so I let it stay, and snuggled back into his hard chest, sighing before I drifted back off into the sleep that was so desperately calling my name.

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**A nice little fluffy moment for everyone. I figured we needed a break from all of the sexual tension, haha. Don't worry though, it should be back soon.**

**Did you like it? Love it? Gotta have more of it? **

**You know what to do...go ahead, make my day, and I'll try super hard to make yours tomorrow! Deal:D **


	8. Chapter 7

**I have bad news. Well, sort of bad news. I'm not abondoning the story, so don't freak out, okay? haha. **

**But, I do have to work the next three nights in a row, which means from three to eleven (when I usually write) I'll be stuck slaving away behind the front desk of the hotel I work at. Which means...**

**It'll probably be a few days before I can get the next chapter up. :/ I might be able to get something up when I get home from work Friday night, but it won't be posted until late at night...**

**I promise you haven't seen the last of me though! You have to admit, I've been doing really fast updates compared to what normal authors do, so give me this one eency, weency little break, okay? **

**I'll be back with a vengence for sure Sunday night! And if I don't post anything on Sunday, I expect my e-mail to be full of hate mail when I wake up Monday morning, deal?**

**Oh, and you can't be mad at me for having to work, because I made this chapter complete fluff just to make up for it. :D **_

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__Jake's POV_

Something wet was dripping onto my face. Every few seconds, I'd feel another drop, over and over again. It was enough to wake me from the more than comfortable sleep I had been in. Annoyed, I opened my eyes to look for the source of my discomfort.

It took me a second to figure out where I was. At first, the only thing I saw was a mass of brown curls. I paused for a minute, inhaling the amazing scent of Miley's hair before I was hit again with another drop. They were coming from above me. I looked up, right in time for another drop to fall into my eye.

"Ow!" I exclaimed loudly as I rubbed at my eye, trying to get the unwelcome water out.

Miley jumped up, frightened and looked around wildly, trying to figure out what had woken her from her slumber.

"Wha…?" was all she could say.

A blush made its way onto my face as I realized just how loudly I had proclaimed my discomfort from the water drop.

"Sorry Miley…water fell into my eye. I didn't mean to wake you up. You should go back to sleep," I said to her as I continued to rub at her eye.

She was more awake now, having gained her senses and looked up at our palm leave roof.

"Why is water falling through our roof?" she wondered aloud.

Just as she said that, a large flash of light appeared outside the grass door of our hut, temporarily illuminating the darkness of the night. It was followed seconds later by a loud clap of thunder. Miley yelped in fear, and pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them tight with her arms. Her eyes were scrunched shut, as if by closing her eyes she could keep out the sound from outside.

"Uh…apparently it's storming outside," I murmured, more to myself than to Miley. I had finally stopped rubbing my eye, and I looked over at her, cowering in fear. "You're afraid of thunderstorms aren't you?" I asked her quietly.

She merely nodded her head as another clap of thunder sounded around us. She temporarily froze, as if she was trying to wait out the sound. When the thunder finally died down, she looked up at me.

"I know I grew up in Tennessee, where there are always thunderstorms, but I never could get used to the sound of thunder. It just scares me. When I was little, I would crawl into bed with my mom and dad whenever a thunderstorm woke me up," she whispered, as tears started making their way down her cheeks "I don't know what it is, but I absolutely freak out whenever I hear thunder."

It hurt to see those beautiful blue eyes cloud with tears. We heard another clap of thunder, and I looked over at Miley, whimpering in fear.

"Come here," was all I said to her as I opened my arms to her. I was grateful at that moment that we had made the hut tall enough for us to at least sit up in.

Miley looked at me for a minute, probably trying to figure out if coming to me for comfort was a good idea. As we heard yet another crash outside, she seemed to think she was too scared to do anything but that and crawled into my lap.

I instantly wrapped my arms around her, holding her head against my chest. She was crying hard now, and I couldn't help but be reminded of when she'd first realized we were stranded on this island. I murmured soft words of comfort to her, just like I had then, and rocked us back and forth, hoping the small gesture would sooth her fears. She would freeze up every time she heard thunder, then start crying again when it had finally passed.

My head was still getting hit by the drops of water, and I realized if we didn't want to wake up completely soaked tomorrow morning, we would have to find a better cover for our hut. I would have to wait until the thunder at least died down quite a bit, though, before I left Miley in here to go look for a new roof.

I looked down at the girl in my lap, realizing she was still very upset. I had to do something to get her to at least calm down a little bit, or she was going to make herself sick. I started to gently rub her back, but that didn't work, so I tried to hum a gentle tune into her ear. It seemed to do the trick, at least for a few minutes. Her body stopped shivering as hard as it had been, and her cries quieted. But it was only for a few minutes, and soon she was sobbing just as hard as she had been before.

"Tell me about your mom." I softly suggested to her. She looked up from her place against my chest, surprise written in her eyes.

"Why?" she asked me, sounding suspicious.

"I want to know," was my simple response, and she seemed to accept it because she launched into the story of her mother. It was amazing to watch her speak. Her eyes had lit up in excitement, and a small smile had made its way onto her face. She looked positively radiant, sitting on my lap, reliving her memories for me. She talked for at least fifteen minutes, recounting the amazing woman that had brought her to life, before she reached the story of her mother's tragic death.

"Stop," I whispered to her, "I only want to hear about the happy times. We'll save the rough part of the story for another time, okay?"

Miley seemed content with my end to her story, for she nodded her head. We both paused, listening for the sound she so feared, only to realize it had drifted away and was not as loud as it had been just a few minutes earlier. My plan to distract her from the thunder had worked.

"Let's lay back down, okay?" I softly suggested to her, hoping the thunder would be quiet enough for her to fall back asleep.

She nodded in agreement, and moved to lie back down next to the wall of the hut, but stopped abruptly.

"The sand is all wet. If I lay down, it'll get stuck to my face." I looked down at the sand I was sitting on, and realized she was right. Cursing myself for suggesting we do away with the wooden floor we had created since the sand would be softer to sleep on, I grabbed the jacket I had laid across Miley earlier in the night.

"Use this as a pillow, okay?"

She thought about it for a minute, before she said, "Why don't we lay it flat, that way we can both use it for a pillow."

I agreed, and she laid the jacket down in front of her, and then laid her head on it, leaving enough space for me. This time, she was lying on her stomach, with her face towards me and her head resting on her arm. I could tell she was still slightly frightened by the sound of the thunder in the distance, because she would do that "freeze" thing every time we heard it.

"Just ignore the sound, Miley, and listen to me." And I started to hum again, laying my head close to hers so she could easily hear me. I reached out, and softly rubbed her back, hoping it would do the trick of calming her this time.

"You would be a great singer…" she softly whispered to me as she drifted off to sleep for the second time that night.

I waited about ten minutes just to be sure she was completely asleep before I got up and made my way outside of the hut. It was still raining, but the harsh storm from before had trickled to a soft sprinkle. I looked out over the shore, hoping to find something to use for the roof so I would not have to venture into the forest while it was still dark. Though we had yet to find anything too dangerous on the island, I didn't want take any risks.

I scanned the beach for a few minutes, before I discovered what I'd been hoping to find. The strong winds of the storm had washed ashore all sorts of items from the ocean. I ran towards the first thing, and moved to pick it up, then paused in surprise. It was a rather large piece of the airplane we had crashed in two days ago. I ran to the next item in the sand, and saw another piece of the plane. I scanned a few feet in front of me, and realized all different shapes and sizes of metal had been washed ashore. I turned to look down the shore in the other direction, and noticed something that didn't look flat enough to be part of the plane.

My curiosity got the better of me and I ran over it to find out what it was. I gasped when I realized it was a suitcase. It was tattered and torn, most likely from being tossed around by the waves, but it was still a suitcase, which meant there were probably clothes inside that we could use to fashion a real blanket out of. I reached out and grabbed the suitcase before dragging it back to the hut. I laid it behind the hut so the wind wouldn't get to it before I ran back to the shore to grab the large piece of the plane I had found earlier. I moved to lift it up, only to realize it was _very_ heavy, and had to settle for dragging it back to the hut.

I propped the large piece of metal against the back wall of the hut, before falling down to my knees in front of it. Grasping the bottom of it, I slid it into place on top of the hut, not bothering to remove the palm leaves. If I did so now, it would leave Miley open to the sky; she would end up as wet as I was. Tomorrow we would worry about removing the palm leaves. Satisfied to see water now dripping off the edge of the metal instead of dripping into the hut, I crawled back inside the hut.

Thankfully, Miley was still sound asleep. I removed my wet shirt, not wanting to get sand all over it, and laid down next to her. I would just have to deal with the sand that was going to get stuck to my back and chest. I turned on my side, observing Miley's sleeping face. She looked so peaceful, softly snoring next to me. I wanted to put my arm around her again and pull her to me, but I didn't want to get sand on her.

I thought back to my actions earlier, when we had first laid down to sleep. She had looked so cute, sleeping against my chest as I'd carried her to the hut that when she turned from me and fell back asleep, it was like my arm had moved around her of its own accord. I wasn't complaining though. I was beginning to realize having Miley in my arms was one of the most amazing things I'd ever experienced in my life. Luckily, she was asleep earlier when my arm had grown its own mind, or I probably would have ruined everything I had achieved so far.

I turned from Miley, crossing my arms behind my head and resting my head on them as I thought about all that had happened the day before. When she had whispered that soft, "Yeah, I think I know," I'd wanted to jump for joy. Those five words had told me the one thing I was so desperate to hear from her: that I had a chance, and I was definitely going to take advantage of that chance. I glanced at Miley one last time as I drifted off to sleep, pondering what our next day on this island would be like.

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**I'm actually terrified of thunderstorms also, which is where I got the idea for this chapter at. If I'm alone when one hits, I have to put in my headphones and listen to music super loud so I can't hear the thunder until it passes. No fun.**

**But you know what would be fun? Reading you're opinion of this story! Let me know, pretty please? **

**Btw, credit goes to BrazilianPrincess for the airplane roof idea. It was genius, so I had to use it. ;D **


	9. Chapter 8

**See? I kept my promise! It's Sunday night, and here is the next chapter, just like I said. **

**I'm sorry I couldn't get anything up Friday night. I didn't get home from work until like 12:30 and I was exhausted from studying late Thursday night for an essay test I had Friday morning, so I came home and pretty much crashed. And last night...well that was interesting. One of my coworkers got married at the hotel I work at, so half of the staff I work with was running through the hotel drunk all night long (luckily they weren't on the clock, or they'd all be fired haha). Talk about a great night; it was hilarious. So I stayed at work extra late to watch all the drunken fun. Then came home and crashed.**

**BUT I still kept my promise! Read away, I insist. :D **

**Oh, and I wanted to apologize for the last chapter. I was in a hurry when I posted it, and I reread it late that night and realized there were tons of little errors that I would have caught if I'd had more time to post. So ignore my bad writing from the last chappie, kay? **_

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__Miley's POV_

When I woke up the next morning, it was because I was cold. Opening my eyes, I sat up. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust, but eventually they did, and I looked around me, only to realize that Jake was no where to be found. Curious, I made my way out of our hut to look for him, and found him standing about knee deep in the water along the shore.

"Jake?" I called out to him, trying to catch his attention.

He turned to me, his eyes brightening. "Good morning, sunshine! I thought you were going to sleep all day!"

Stretching, I watched Jake make his way to me up the beach.

"I'm happy you're finally awake," he smiled at me as he got closer. "I've got a surprise for you."

"Really? What is it?"

Jake chuckled, before he responded, "I'm not just going to tell you. It's something I have to show you." He grabbed my arm and pulled me around to the back of our hut. "Look what I pulled off the beach last night during the storm!" Jake was clearly excited about his discovery.

I looked down at the battered suitcase Jake was pointing at, eager to find out what was in it. "Let's open it!"

Jake dropped to his knees in front of the suit case and I fell next to him. We situated ourselves in front of the suit case and Jake moved to open it.

The first thing we found was a pillow laying across the top of the suit case's other contents. I happily grabbed the pillow and moved it aside so we could sift through everything else. We spent the next few minutes going through the suit case and ended up finding a few valuable things. The suit case had clearly belonged to a guy, and it looked like he had packed for his child also. We found a ton of clothes for Jake and me to wear, though they would be big on me. It was better than finding a lady's suit case though, because while I could wear guy clothes, Jake couldn't wear girl clothes.

Of course, there was also a lot of little boy's clothes. By a stroke of luck, we had noticed a travel size sewing kit, which we were planning to use to sew some of the smaller clothes together to make a blanket for the cold nights. We also ended up finding what looked like a portable radio. It was soaked from being tossed around in the water, but we were hopeful that if we gave it time to dry out, we'd be able to get it to work. Unfortunately, a lot of space in the suit case had been taken up by children's toys, but we also managed to find a small first aid kit. That would be convenient for the next time Jake decided to take of running through the forest without shielding his arms from the branches. There was also shampoo and other toiletries that everyone packed when they were going on vacation.

Vacation.

Pausing, I looked down at the contents of the suit case, my heart breaking. This small family had been on their way to what was supposed to be a good time, but they were never going to make it there. I thought about the other families that had been on the plane and the families they had left behind.

"I can't do this Jake." I softly stated, interrupting the silence between us.

He looked up at me, confusion on his face. "What do you mean you can't do this? What can't you do?"

"This. I can't use this stuff, knowing it belonged to someone else, someone that didn't make it through the crash." I was a little upset, but not enough to make me cry. I was more apprehensive at the thought of all the other people that had lost their lives in the crash. "Think about it, Jake. There were at least forty other people on that plane, and we're the only ones that survived? Of all the people on that plane, you and I just happened to be the ones that survived. Why?"

Jake's eyes softened as he thought about how to respond to what I had just said. "Don't question it, Miley," he looked deep into my eyes as he said this. "Be grateful that you're still alive, not sad that you aren't dead. Everything happens for a reason, you know that. Maybe it just wasn't our time to leave this world."

I had never been more appreciative of Jake than I was in that moment. It was like he always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better.

"Thank you for always saying the right thing," I mumbled as I placed my hand on his arm, "It really means a lot to me."

I moved to get up, but Jake stopped me.

"I'll always be here for you, Miley, know matter how much you hate me."

I wanted to tell Jake that I didn't hate him anymore, that I was beginning to feel the exact opposite of hate, but I just couldn't bring myself to say it.

"Thanks," was all I said as I moved to grab the shampoo from the suit case. "I think I'm going to go wash my hair in the waterfall and try to clean up a little bit. I haven't taken a shower in three days, and I'm getting gross."

Grabbing some clothes from the suitcase, I started to walk into the forest, before turning around to Jake and saying, "This time, don't come looking for me, okay?"

Jake laughed, before nodding his agreement as he watched me walk off.

_Jake's POV_

I wanted nothing more than to follow her to that stream. I wanted to watch her take all of her clothes off before sliding into the warm water, then watch her dunk her beautiful brown hair under the falling water before shampooing it. If I had things my way, I'd be joining her in that 'shower,' not sitting on the beach fantasizing about it.

Frustrated, I picked up the radio and pillow, carrying them to the front of the hut. I laid them down in the sand, hoping the shining sun would dry them out faster. Then, I made my way to the shoreline to collect the shards of metal that had washed ashore last night. I figured it would be better to collect them now, even if we had no use for them, then to risk them being taken back out to sea by the waves before we did need them.

As I walked, picking up the metal scraps, I thought about the night before. It had felt so good to have Miley in my arms, even if it had been because she was scared. My plan seemed to be working so far, and I was hopeful that before long, I would spend every night with the girl of my dreams wrapped up in my arms.

Eventually, I felt like I had enough metal for us to find something to do with, so I made my way back to the hut and dropped it next to the door. It was then that I realized just how heavy the metal had been. The muscles in my arm stung in protest of the heavy weight they had just been forced to carry, and my shirt was drenched in sweat.

Without thinking, I quickly pulled my shirt off before running into the ocean. I waded into the water until it was up to my waste before I dived in completely, and took off swimming towards the open ocean. Before long, I stopped myself and swam to the surface to catch my breath. Looking back over to the shoreline to make sure I was still within a safe distance from it, I leaned my head back until I was floating on my back in the water. It was so comfortable to just float there, letting the sun's rays wash over me. It had long since stopped raining, and the sky above me was a clear blue.

When I felt like I had wasted enough time floating in the water, I turned to swim back to the shore. I was about half way in when I realized Miley was standing at the edge of the water with a slightly dazed look on her face. She had put a pair of basketball shorts she had found in the suit case on, along with her tank top.

Curious as to what had made her space out, I turned around to look behind me, hoping to see a ship or something, but there was nothing there. I looked back at Miley and began walking out of the water towards her. I tried to catch her eyes to figure out what she was looking at, only to realize she was staring at me. Ah, so that's what it was. Miley was once again looking over my body.

Calling her name, I tried to catch her attention as I got closer to her, but she was completely spaced. I called her name a few more times, but still no response. That was when the evil idea hit me. Letting a smirk settle on my face, I continued my slow walk to her location on the shore, not wanting to jar her out of her Jake-induced (and boy did it feel good to say that!) haze. I was about five feet in front of her, before I decided to enact my plan.

I took off running towards Miley, shocking her out of her daydream.

She screamed, and turned to run from me, but I was too quick for her. I took her in my arms, and picked her up, throwing her over my shoulder.

"Jake!" she screamed at me, clearly pissed off, but I didn't care. "Put me down this instant you Zombie Slayer, you!"

I laughed. " 'You Zombie Slayer, you?' That's the best you got?" I turned away from the beach and started walking towards the open ocean again, Miley secured over my shoulder.

She was huffing and puffing and beating her little hands against my back, trying to get me to stop and put her down when she realized where I was taking her.

"Oh no! Please don't, Jake. I just washed my hair! Please, please, please! I'll do anything! Just don't drop me in the water!"

That proposition temporarily stopped me in my tracks. I thought for a minute about just what sort of things I could get with that little option, before deciding her reaction to being dropped in the water was going to be so much better. Laughing to myself, I continued walking until I was waste deep in the water again before I responded.

"You know, as tempting as that offer was…this is going to be so much better!" I pulled her off of my shoulder and settled her into my arms bridal style, looking down at her face. She was flushed with anger and excitement, and it was positively radiant. There was a strong desire to attack her lips with mine coming from somewhere in my body, but I held it off.

She looked up at me, trying to pull a puppy dog face.

"Why would you do such a heartless thing?" she asked me, a pout settling on her face.

I laughed, looking into her eyes, before I responded, "Because, if I do this, I get to see you all wet." I winked at her, and gave her just enough time to blush before I promptly released her from my arms, sending her tumbling into the water.

She resurfaced seconds later, spitting ocean water out of her mouth.

"You are so dead, Jake Ryan!" she exclaimed at me before she tried to attack me. What she didn't know was that before I had joined Zombie High, I had been on the swim team of my middle school. To say I was good was an understatement. I had been their star swimmer, winning gold medals for the team left and right.

I took off, swimming away from her. I swam about ten feet before I realized Miley had given up. She stood in the water a few feet behind me, completely soaked, with disappointment written across her face. Feeling bad, I made my way back towards her, trying to give her a better chance at getting back at me. I stopped about a foot in front of her, but she didn't make a move to get me.

Confused, I inched a little closer to her, trying to figure out if she was okay and wondering if I had done something wrong. There was still no response from her, so I inched closer. Before long, I was standing right in front of her.

Her arms were crossed over her mid-section, like she was upset about something, and she was still looking down at the water. I moved my hand to underneath her chin, and slowly tilted her head up to meet my eyes, and realized how gravely mistaken I had been. She looked up at me with a smirk across her face, an evil glint in her eyes, before she exclaimed, "Gotcha!" and leapt at me.

There was no way for me to escape, and she attacked me, tickling me all over. I busted out in loud laughter as I tried to catch her evil hands that were making their way all over my chest, hitting all of my most ticklish spots.

"M-M-Miley, stop!" I tried to appeal to her through my laughter, but it was to no avail. She was on a role, and I was doomed. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe, and just when I felt like I was going to pass out from lack of air, she stopped just as suddenly as she'd started.

I took the opportunity to step back from her, trying to put space between my ticklish chest and her evil hands, before I looked up at her. My breathing was still shallow, and it seemed she had been laughing too because her breathing was just as irregular.

It took a few minutes for my breathing to even out. Once it did, I looked over Miley, scanning up and down her wet body. It was then that I realized she had decided to forgo the bra when she'd gotten dressed after her bath in the stream. I could see _everything _outlined through her wet tank top, and it was…hot. I looked up from her chest to her face, to find that she had been scanning my body as well.

Our eyes met, and the atmosphere around us changed. Her normally bright blue eyes darkened with desire, and I wondered if mine had done the same.

It wasn't important though. What was important was that the woman I so desperately wanted was staring right back at me, her eyes showing her matching desire.

I didn't stop to think. I had been waiting for this since I'd started at her school four months ago, and it was now or never.

Grabbing her arm, I pulled her to me.

I had just enough time to see her eyes fall shut as mine did the same, before I slammed my slips against hers…

…and found my heaven.

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**See? Good things come to those who wait:D **

**Let me know what you think, yeah? All you gotta do is press the "go" button right below this line! I'll love you for forever!! **


	10. Chapter 9

**For the record, Jake didn't slam his 'slips' against Miley's, his slammed his 'lips' against hers. This is why I need a beta-reader people! I went back last night to reread the chapter, and realized I'd written about Jake's 'slips.' The sad part is, i proofread each chapter two or three times before I post it! But its easy to miss little things like that, especially after staring at something for so long. Sooo...if anyone is interested, let me know, please? You'll get to read all of the chapters a day before everyone else does:D **

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The second Jake's lips slammed against mine all conscious thought fled my mind. It took a second for me to realize what had just happened. When it finally set in that Jake's lips were against mine, I eagerly set to kissing him back. My hands left their position at my side, flying up to tangle in his blonde hair, before I decided I wanted to explore. 

I started to move my hands up and down Jake's upper body, feeling his strong back muscles, massaging his amazing abs, squeezing his muscular biceps. I couldn't figure out where to leave them; there was just too much of Jake I wanted to feel beneath my finger tips. His tongue lightly brushed against my lower lip, and I opened my mouth as our tongues started a ferocious duel of passion.

It was an amazing feeling. I felt an explosion of tingling sensations up and down my entire body, originating from the pit of my stomach. My cheeks were flushed with desire. My body was set afire wherever Jake's hands touched, and he was not being shy in the least. His hands went from grasping my arm, to tangling in my hair, to softly holding my cheek to his face before he began to venture downward, lightly caressing my back as he did. They skimmed over my butt, before he grabbed it and gently squeezed. I jumped in surprise, only to find myself pressed even closer to Jake. Boldly, his hands slipped underneath my wet tank top, massaging my lower back. He left them there for a couple of seconds before slowly moving them to my stomach, inching upwards towards my chest every few moments.

I knew what he was trying to do, and for some reason, I couldn't seem to stop him. I wasn't ready for that yet, but it felt so good. Three days ago, I'd hated Jake with a passion, and here I was, about to let him feel me up. But I wasn't _letting_ him; I _wanted_ him to. I'd never felt this passionate about someone and I was so lost in my emotions, I was sure if he decided he wanted to take me right then and there, I'd willingly let him.

That thought zapped me back to reality. It was too soon. I was one of the few girls I knew my age that was still relatively untainted when it came to boys. Sure, I'd made out with a few of them, but it was never anything this intense, and it'd never gone any farther than a few kisses. If I was going to let Jake be the first to open my eyes to these new sensations, we needed to take it slow.

Just as his hands moved to pull my tank top up to expose my bare chest to him, I reluctantly tore my lips from his.

"Jake…" I whispered, my voice heavy with desire. I tried to pull back from him, but he held on tighter, pulling me close.

"Jake, stop." I said, this time my voice a little louder.

That seemed to wake him from his passion. He pulled back, opening his eyes in confusion.

"What's wrong, Miley?" He asked me gently, taking my hands in his, worry evident in his voice. "Did I make a mistake?"

"No, no," I softly reassured him as I looked down at the water we were still standing in. "It's just…"

I couldn't think with the guy I was forcing myself away from standing so close to me. I took a step back, the water swishing around my legs, before I tried again.

"It's just…I've never gone that far with a guy before. And I was about to let you do _whatever_ you wanted to do. I completely lost control of myself, and I'm not that kind of person. If something like that does happen between us, I need to be sure it's what I really want before it happens."

A hopeful look appeared on his face, as he took in my words.

"You mean, it could happen?" he asked brightly.

I smiled at the excitement I saw in his eyes, before I softly replied, "Oh yeah, it could happen."

His smile grew wide as he pulled me into a hug, holding me tight against him, and I let my head fall against his chest.

What I didn't tell him was that I was currently absolutely terrified. I was terrified of myself, and the strength of my feelings for him, and I wasn't quite sure how to react to them.

After what felt like forever, I pulled away from Jake, a wide smile on my face.

"But…" I began, looking into Jake's smiling eyes, "You are SO still dead for dropping me in the water earlier!"

I jumped onto him, pushing his head into the water at our waist. When he resurfaced, his eyes were full of laughter.

"Oh you asked for it, Miley. You're going down!"

I squealed in excitement before I turned from him. This time I was fast enough to miss his grabbing arms, and I took off swimming towards the shore. I somehow managed to beat him to the shore, and I took off running through the forest, not caring that I had no protection for my feet.

I turned to glance behind me, noticing he was catching up. I tried to run faster, but my chest was starting to hurt from all of the effort, so I decided to hide from him. Ducking behind a tree, I made sure I was well hidden as I watched him pass by me, continuing to run in the direction I had been going. When he was well out of sight, presumably still 'chasing' me, I stepped out from behind the tree and made my way back to the beach, silently laughing and wondering how long he was going to chase me before he realized I was no longer running in front of him.

Stepping onto the soft sand of the shore, I looked up at the sun to realize it was no longer morning like it had been when I'd unwillingly joined Jake in the water. Pausing for a minute, I tried to decide what to do to pass the time until Jake wandered back to the beach. My eyes scanned the suit case we had eagerly searched through earlier, and I decided to try to sew that blanket I had planned on making.

I pulled the children's clothes and sewing kit out of the suit case and propped myself against the front of hut so I could watch the sun set while I was sewing. I threaded the string through a needle, and set to work on my masterpiece.

Soon, I was lost in the project I was working on, completely forgetting where I was. My mind drifted back to my days as a little girl, when I'd spent many afternoons helping my mom sew together a quilt for the baby brother I was supposed to have. A tear leaked out of my eye as I remembered when my mom and dad had broken the tragic news to me. Something had been wrong with the baby, and he hadn't survived the pregnancy. My little heart had been crushed that day, all of my hopes and dreams of playing with my new baby brother settling heavy in my mind. I had thought the pain I'd felt that day was like nothing I'd ever experience again. I had been so wrong.

The day I'd been pulled out of school by my dad I'd been excited. Who didn't love getting to leave school early? But the pain I'd felt that afternoon as my dad broke the news that there had been an accident, was ten times what I'd felt when I'd learned of the miscarriage. I still remember vividly how he'd taken me into his arms, holding me close. A tear drop had hit my head as he softly whispered, "Your mama won't be coming home anymore, bud." I was an innocent thirteen years old when she was taken from us by that drunk driver, and by the time I was fourteen, I'd felt like I had experienced the life of a thirty year old.

I didn't realize I was crying until I saw the tear drop fall onto the soft fabric I was trying to create a blanket out of.

_Stop it, Miley!_ I scolded myself. Now was not the time to break down over something that had happened many years ago. Right now I needed to be strong, or I'd never get off this island. I wiped my eyes, removing the tears as I looked up at the sun.

My mouth dropped in shock. The sun was seconds away from setting. I had been sewing for at least three hours, and Jake still hadn't returned. Jumping up, I moved to go search for him, when he appeared along the forest edge.

"There you are!" he exclaimed, running towards me.

"Of course I'm here. Where else would I be? The question is, where have YOU been?"

Jake rolled his eyes. "I've been looking for you!"

"Oh…" My eyes turned towards the ground. "Uh, sorry about that. I was trying to play a prank on you, but apparently it wasn't a very good one."

"Ya think?! I've been trudging through the forest for hours, searching for you. My feet are killing me!"

That slightly annoyed me. "Okay, I'm sorry. Geez. I didn't realize you would keep looking for me for so long. I figured you were going to give up a long time ago."

"It's okay. You were just trying to get me back for dumping you in the water," Jake sighed at me.

"Which you SO deserved," I pointed out.

Jake laughed lightly as he went to sit down in front of the hut to massage his sore feet. "Okay, Okay, I deserved it. But you gotta admit I got you good. Plus, something good came from it."

I thought back to the passionate kiss we shared earlier and flushed at the memory as the tingles began to set in again.

"I guess. If that's what you want to call it…" I mumbled, brushing it off like it was nothing.

Jake looked at me, his jaw dropping in shock.

"Kidding!" I exclaimed. "It was a joke. A nice, harmless joke."

"Uh huh." Jake looked at me, his eyes suspicious.

"I'm serious Jake." I sat down next to him, leaning my head against his shoulder.

"I know. Now massage my feet to make up for it." He commanded as he tried to twist his leg to stick his foot in my lap.

I laughed, pushing his leg away from me. "In your dreams, Zombie Slayer!"

"Oh you'd be surprised what kind of things you do for me in my dreams." Jake waggled his eyebrows suggestively, but I just rolled my eyes in response.

"Keep talking like that, and those little favors will STAY in your dreams." I threatened.

That shut him up, as he looked at me with scared eyes. After a minute, he admitted defeat. "Fine…if you insist. Let's go make dinner. What do you want tonight?"

I laughed, before responding, "Well, we could have fish, or fish…or fish! What do you think?"

Jake paused, scrunching his eyebrows like he was seriously considering his options.

"I think I'll go with the…fish!"

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**Hehe...they're so cute. **

**I figured now would be a good time to learn about Miley's mom. I can't remember if the show has given an explanation for her death, but I've read a lot of different options in different stories. I decided to go with this one because I've lost someone to a car crash as well, as I'm sure many of us have. I figured it was the most relatable.**

**Anywho...let me know what you think, kay? **


	11. Chapter 10

**Before I do anything, I need to introduce everyone to my wonderful new beta's: Wolfwhisperer, SVUlover, and PenguinsRFunny! They are absolutely fantastic (And without penguinsrfunny, this chapter probably would have sucked because I was exhausted when I wrote it. She saved it for you guys! haha). Anywho, thanks to them, you guys won't have to deal with those annoying minor mistakes I seem to keep making. **

**By the way, we're back to the 'work three days' in a row thing again. I gotta work tonight, tomorrow and saturday night. It shouldn't be as hard for me to get something up at least by Saturday this time though, because I don't have any major tests to study for in my spare time like I did last week, but don't expect anything at least for a few days. :/ Sorry, but I have bills to pay, haha. **

**With that, please enjoy Chapter 10!

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**_Jake's POV_

That night, I lay awake for hours, staring at the ceiling of our hut, listening to the harsh pitter patter of rain as it hit the metal of the roof, and thinking about the kiss I had shared with Miley earlier that day. I was actually pretty surprised. Okay, I was completely, utterly shocked. I hadn't really expected her to respond to my lips against hers. After all, according to her, she hated my guts. But the response I had gotten from her was not that of someone who despised me. It was that of someone who matched the passion and emotion I felt in my heart.

It was by far the most amazing experience I'd ever been through. Feeling her soft lips against mine was something I'd been dreaming about since I'd first laid eyes on her, but the real thing was so much better. It was like the difference between a scoop of your favorite ice cream, and a scoop of your favorite ice cream made into a sundae.

My mind had stopped working when I felt Miley's hands tangle in my hair. I couldn't help myself as my hands had slipped under her tank top, making their way to her chest; I wanted nothing more than to remove the barriers between us, and feel her truly pressed against me.

But Miley had been right. It was too soon, and I needed to learn to control my raging hormones if I was ever going to be the one to help her explore the wonders of pleasure. When she had told me that I had made her lose control, I felt like jumping up and down in excitement. She had confirmed what I had suspected all along: Miley was beginning to feel just as passionate about me as I felt about her. And I definitely wasn't going to push it. She had already told me I had the chance of being the one to awaken her sexual side, so I was going to take it slow, and I was going to share a world with Miley that she would never want to leave.

I turned on my side to look down at her sleeping face. She had a small smile on her face, and I briefly wondered if it was because of me.

I secretly admired her strength. Just yesterday, I had questioned our chances of ever getting off this island, and she had been quick to reassure me. I was the guy; I was supposed to be the strong one. But Miley was so much stronger than me emotionally. She had lost her mother and lived to tell the tale. If I lost either of my parents, I don't know how I'd continue to function.

Plus, she had the strength to stop me during our moment of passion before I'd done something we probably both would have regretted. It proved that Miley knew who she was and what she wanted from life. I admired her beauty, sure, but I admired her strength more. She knew her boundaries, and she knew herself. I, on the other hand, knew very little about myself, and I hoped that one day I would be able to learn from her, and in turn learn about myself.

Just as I was about to reach out and run my fingers through her hair, I heard a loud crash outside the hut. Startled, I jerked my hand back to my side. I paused for a minute, listening intently to see if I could hear any other sounds, but there was no such luck. Miley jumped in surprise, awakening quickly.

"What was that?!" she exclaimed softly, looking at me with fear in her eyes.

"I don't know…" I mumbled as I crawled towards the door to peak outside. I desperately looked around, trying to see what had made the crashing sound, but I couldn't see anything through the heavy rain. Frustrated, I turned to Miley.

"I can't see anything through the rain. I'm going to go out there and investigate."

Miley's eyes slightly widened with worry.

"What if whatever made that sound gets you?" She asked me quietly, and my heart soared at her care for my well-being.

I smiled slightly at her innocent fear before I responded, "There's nothing out there. We've explored the whole island, remember? If there was something, we would have found it. I bet it was just a tree falling or something."

She nodded her consent, but pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly just as she had done the night before during the thunderstorm.

"I'll be fine," I reassured her before stepping out into the rain.

Within seconds, my shirt was almost completely soaked, and I reached to the side of the door to grab one of the pieces of metal I'd collected earlier, holding it over my head in a make-shift umbrella. Turning slowly, I looked around, trying to find what had crashed. I paused when I spotted a fallen tree near the edge of the forest. Making my way to it, I tried desperately to remember if it had always been uprooted, but I couldn't. I stepped to the roots, trying to examine if they looked freshly unearthed. I decided they were, and made my way back to Miley.

I crawled back into the hut.

"It was just a fallen tree," I explained to her as I sat back down. "It must have been pretty windy earlier to make a tree uproot itself."

I looked down at my shirt, realizing it was soaked through again. I pulled it off, laying it in the corner as I lay back down against the jackets we had laid out earlier to cover the sand. Miley looked down at me, still sitting upright with her legs against her chest. I looked up at her.

"Why aren't you lying back down?"

She hesitated, like she was considering her answer, before she responded, "You don't think this is like a sign or something, do you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked her, confused.

"Its just that, it didn't rain the first night we were here, so I don't think this raining every night thing is common. But it rained a LOT last night, and its raining again tonight. You don't think there could be a storm coming or anything, do you?"

She made sense. We were stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and while it's name had been derived from the word 'peaceful,' I'd read many times that when the tranquility of the ocean was disturbed by other geologic forces, the disturbance tended to be huge. But the rain from last night had dried up this morning and the sky had been completely free of clouds all day long. If there was a storm coming, the sky should reflect that, right?

"You have a point…but for now, I think we should be okay. If the sky clears up tomorrow, we shouldn't worry about it. But if it stays rainy and windy all day tomorrow, we might want to worry," I informed.

Miley seemed satisfied with my answer, because she laid down next to me, placing her head on the soft pillow.

"Okay, if you say so…" she trailed off as she snuggled under the blanket and drifted back to sleep.

I pulled the blanket up to my shoulders and drifted off to sleep as well.

_Miley's POV_

When I woke up the next morning, it hadn't stopped raining. In fact, it seemed to have gotten worse.

I opened my eyes, only to find Jake staring at me.

"Good morning?" I questioned, looking up at his scrutinizing eyes.

He laughed gently, before nodding, "Good morning."

"It's raining." I pointed out, a little obvious.

Jake just laughed again. "It is."

"We should get up and…get ready for the day?"

"We should," Jake confirmed.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. "Are you going to respond with two word answers to everything I say?"

"I will."

I lifted my arm from my side and pushed Jake lightly on his shoulder.

"Stop it." I scolded lightly.

"But why? You're so cute when you're face gets all flushed in anger like that," he smiled at me, pretending to be confused.

"Jake! Stop that! We have things to do…" I tried to interrupt him.

He laughed loudly, before responding, "Things to do? Miley, it's pouring outside. If we go out there we'll get soaked."

"But remember what you said last night? About us worrying about a storm if it didn't stop raining? Well…it hasn't stopped raining!" I was trying to get Jake to see my point, but he just shook his head.

"No, not right now. Right now, I want to lay here and admire your beautiful face."

I blushed.

"I'm not pretty…" I tried to argue.

Jake's eyes widened with shock.

"Not pretty?" he asked incredulously. "Miley, every inch of you is gorgeous."

He slowly leaned towards me, resting his head close to mine on the pillow.

"You're pretty right here." He leaned forward and dropped a kiss on my forehead.

"You're gorgeous right here." This time, he dropped a kiss on my cheek.

"You're beautiful right here." His lips brushed the tip of my nose.

"And you're downright sexy right here." My eyes closed as his lips brushed against mine for the second time ever.

There was that explosion of feeling again. I was beginning to like it quite a bit.

This time, Jake pulled away after only a few seconds, smiling down at me.

"Thank you for giving me a chance, Miley. You have no idea how much it means to me," he softly whispered to me.

I smiled up at him, before responding, "You earned it. I always thought you were some stuck up actor, but I guess being here, secluded from the rest of the world, showed me the real you."

It was his turn to blush. He reached out and pulled me towards him. I rested my head on his chest, not even bothering to protest that it was too soon. It just felt right, and I was tired of arguing with it.

"I like this," I whispered to Jake.

I could feel him smile against the top of my head, where his head was resting, as he responded, "I like it, too."

We laid like that for a good hour or so, soaking in the feeling of being in each other's arms. I was pretty sure Jake had drifted off to sleep, because his hands loosened their grip against me and his breathing deepened.

The rain trickled to a soft sprinkle, and eventually, it stopped completely. I figured now was the time to try to find some emergency shelter in case a storm did hit, so I decided to wake Jake up.

"Jake…" I called softly, shaking his shoulder.

No response.

"Jake, wake up," I tried again.

He grumbled in his sleep and tried to turn away from me.

"Jake!" I finally yelled at him, and that seemed to do the trick.

"What?!" he yelled back, his voice just as loud. He turned to see who was disturbing his sleep, and a sheepish look appeared on his face. "Oh…sorry, Miley, I didn't mean to yell at you."

My shoulders shrugged. "No problem. But we should go look for better shelter since it has stopped raining."

Jake sat up, rubbing his eyes and trying to wake himself up completely.

"Okay," he said after a few minutes, "Let's do it."

We both crawled out of our tent and looked around.

And our jaws dropped in shock.

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**You're opinion is greatly appreciated and will be taken with a great deal of excitement by me! (Sounds like an automated recording, huh?)**

**So let me know what you think, please?? **


	12. Chapter 11

**Okay, okay...It's not Saturday, like I promised. BUT it's first thing Sunday morning! **

**I got smart yesterday, and took my lap top to work so I could type this chapter. And since we get bored at work a lot (when you've got an 8 hour shift, and 16 people to check in, you spend more time online reading fanfiction that you do actually working...I love my job, haha)...I had tons of time to type!**

**So it is because of my boredom that you are now reading this chapter!

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**"Oh my gosh…" was all I could say as I looked at the damage around me. 

Everywhere I turned, debris covered the beach, making it almost impossible to see the white sand beneath it. Long strands of seaweed lay spread across the shore, farther inland than the waves usually reached. Piles of beach wood covered the sand that wasn't covered by the seaweed. Small fish lay suffocated amongst the wreckage, dead from being torn out of their natural habitat. Bits of brilliantly colored coral lay everywhere, broken off of their colonial habitats. In short, it looked like the Pacific Ocean had gotten sick the previous night and had thrown up all of its contents on the shore of our little island.

"What happened?"

Jake looked at me. "I have no clue."

"Jake, I don't think this is a good sign," my voice sounded worried.

"Ya think?"

"Hey! That's my saying!" I exclaimed, temporarily distracted from my worry.

He smiled sheepishly at me. "Sorry, but it's so cute when you do it, I wanted to see if it'd be cute for me."

I laughed gently, before turning back to the view of the shore. "What do you think could have caused this?"

"Honestly?" He looked at me, his voice a warning tone, like he wasn't sure if I wanted to know.

"Yes, honestly. Jake, if something is coming our way, we need to be prepared for it."

He sighed. "I think this means we have a storm coming our way, and it must be pretty close, 'cuz it looks like it already got to the ocean surrounding us. It must be pretty bad too, to cause this much damage to the underlying ocean."

My eyes widened.

"What are we going to do?"

Jake put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him, before responding, "The only thing we can do: find stronger shelter." He looked out at the stormy sky in front of us. "And soon…it doesn't look like we have much time."

We turned away from the view of the shore and set off through the forest, looking for a place to barricade ourselves for the night as the storm passed. Jake led the way, and I was silently thankful. At the present moment, I was dead terrified. If I'd been worried about never getting off this island during clear skies, imagine how I felt now. I didn't doubt rescue crews ever finding us; I doubted them finding us before the storm hit, and I was afraid we wouldn't make it through the storm.

We both agreed that our best chances of finding some sort of permanent shelter was to venture back to the mountain the waterfall ran off of, hoping I had missed something when I'd explored it our first day on the island. We spent a good while searching the base of it, but found nothing.

"Jake, there's nothing here," I sighed at him, "What are we going to do?"

"Let's climb up to the top of the mountain and see if we can find anything," he suggested.

It didn't seem like a very safe idea, but it was all we had to go on, so I nodded in agreement and we began to slowly climb our way up the sloped hill.

We had made it about half way up when Jake yelled in excitement.

"Miley! I found something!"

I looked up from the ground I had been carefully watching, to see him pointing at something in the ground next to him.

"What is it?!" I yelled back. The wind had picked up, and was creating a deafening roar in my ears.

"Come look!" was all he said to me, so I set about covering the distance between us.

When I reached him I looked down to see him pointing at what looked like a small cave opening.

"Jake, that's tiny. We aren't going to fit in there. I wouldn't even fit in there," I complained to him, my worry increasing.

He rolled his eyes, before saying, "Stick your head in and take a look around."

My eyebrows furrowing in confusion, I kneeled down on the ground and cautiously peeked my head inside the opening. What I saw made my jaw drop. What I had thought was a tiny cave was actually the opening to a very big cave. In fact, it was huge! It was big enough for us to lie comfortably in and still have plenty of surrounding space, and tall enough for me to probably stand up in comfortably, though Jake would still have to duck his head.

I pulled my head out of the cave.

"How could I have missed this when I went exploring?" I muttered more to myself than Jake.

"Did you look over the entire mountain?" Jake asked me.

I thought back to our second day on the island and remembered, "No…I didn't. I figured if there was a cave, it would be at the base. I didn't think to climb up it."

"Well, at least we found something. Let's go back to the beach and collect our few belongings so we can move them here for the night," Jake suggested.

I mumbled a quick, "Good idea," and we began slowly making our way down the hill.

It took us a few minutes to find the shore again because wind kept blowing debris into our faces. By the time we reached it and looked out across the ocean, it seemed a storm was definitely going to hit, and it was going to hit soon. We hurriedly grabbed what we could, trying to shove most of it into the battered suitcase, and began to rush back through the forest when a thought made me stop.

"What about food?" I posed my question to Jake.

He froze as well, and turned to look at me, thinking.

"I don't really have time to try to catch fish…" he mused aloud. He pondered our options for a few minutes before a revelation hit him. "I know it probably sounds gross...but why don't we collect some of the fish that got stranded along the shore? It's faster than me trying to catch some, which we definitely don't have time to do."

I grimaced at the thought, but it really was all we had, so I nodded my head and Jake dropped the suit case and took off running towards the shore. I watched from my spot along the forest edge as he dropped every few seconds to pick up one of the many fish that had been washed ashore. When he ran back to me a few minutes later, his hands we full of at least ten small fish.

"I need something to carry this with," he said to me as he stopped by my side, "I'll never make it up the mountain with my hands full like this…"

I thought hard about what he could use to drop the fish in. Smiling, I pulled the cover off the pillow we had discovered just yesterday.

"Drop them in here," I explained as I held the pillow cover out to him, "We don't need a cover to use the pillow."

He dropped the fish into the pillow and picked up the suit case again. As we turned to hurry through the forest, it began to rain again. We'd made it five feet into the forest when lightning lit up the sky. Thunder exploded around us. The sound was deafening, and twice as worse as it had been the other night. I was beginning to realize that I was just going to have to get over my fear of thunder if I didn't want to wake up terrified every night.

We made it five more feet when lightning struck again. The rain started coming down in torrents around us. It was difficult to see more than a few inches in front of us, and trying to run through the harsh rain seemed impossible.

"Jake! I can't see anything!" I yelled through the blustering wind, trying to catch Jake's attention.

He turned to me, shifting the suit case so he could hold it with only one hand. He reached out with his other hand and grabbed mine, holding it tightly, and began pulling me in the direction of the waterfall. He was running so fast it was difficult for me to keep up, and I kept stumbling on the uneven forest floor. It wasn't long before I tripped and hit the ground hard. I yelped in pain as I felt my left ankle twist in a direction it was not made to go in.

Jake dropped the suit case and kneeled down beside me.

"Are you okay?!" He exclaimed through the rain.

"I don't know!" I yelled back as he moved to help me stand up. I cautiously placed my ankle on the ground, trying to put pressure on it. "I think it's twisted or something!" was all I could say as I collapsed in pain.

Jake's lips formed the word, "Shit," but I couldn't hear it.

He pushed the suit case to the side of the walking path along with the pillow and fish I'd been carrying, before telling me to climb on his back. He adjusted me so I was secure in his arms and set off running towards the cave.

"What about our stuff?!"

He shook his head. "I'll go back for it. I just want to get you to safety."

He was no longer yelling through the wind because I was so close to him, but his voice was still loud.

I could only nod as I struggled to hold myself against his back despite his hasty movements. Another flash of lightning exploded around us, followed by more deafening thunder. I silently whimpered, but was determined to not show my fear. Jake was being stronger than I'd ever seen him, and I was more than grateful for him simply carrying me. I didn't want him to worry about me being scared on top of being hurt.

The trek up the mountain side was long and dangerous. It took us longer than ever before because of the pouring rain and my inability to walk. Every few feet we would get pushed back because Jake kept slipping in the mud. When we finally reached the small opening to the cave, he had to set me down because only one of us could squeeze in at a time.

I lightly hobbled into the cave, wincing at the pain that shot up my leg every time I even lightly pressed my foot to the ground. When I'd finally made it a few feet inside, I collapsed against the cave wall, pulling my ankle into my lap so I could assess the damage. Jake followed, sitting beside me.

"Let me see it," he commanded, and I obligingly moved my foot from my lap to his. He rolled my pant legs up and I flushed in embarrassment: I hadn't shaved in three days, and my legs did not look so hot.

Jake spent the next five minutes observing my ankle from all angles.

"Can you move it?"

I nodded, slightly twisting my foot from left to right. It was possible, but it was horribly painful.

"Good, it's not broken," he decided, and I rolled my eyes. I could've told him that. Believe me, if I had broken something in my tumble to the forest floor, I would probably still be sitting in the rain, bawling my eyes out in pain.

Jake gently set my foot down against the floor of the cave and moved to pull his shirt off. He rolled it up and began tying it around my ankle.

"What are you doing?!" I softly exclaimed. "If you go out there without a shirt on, you'll catch pneumonia!"

To be honest, I didn't even want him to go back out to get our supplies, but I knew he had to grab them now before the storm hit full force.

"You don't 'catch' pneumonia. You develop it from not taking care of yourself when you're sick. And you don't get sick from being cold. You get sick from being exposed to germs," he explained. I had no idea if he was telling the truth or not about the developing pneumonia, but my energy was fast leaving as I gritted through the pain in my ankle and I didn't feel like arguing with him as he continured, "Besides, you need to apply pressure to your ankle somehow or its going to swell up and you won't be able to move it at all."

Thunder sounded again, louder than it'd ever been before.

Jake moved away from me towards the entrance of the cave to retrieve our supplies. Just as he was about to wiggle his way outside, I called out to him.

"Jake, wait!"

He turned to me.

"Be safe, okay? I don't want to be stuck on this island alone…" I trailed off, looking away from his eyes.

Jake's face softened as he made his way back towards me.

"I promise I'll be extra careful," he murmured as he dropped a kiss on my forehead. He turned to leave again, but I grabbed his arm. I swiftly pulled him to me and planted my lips against his in a soft, but comforting kiss.

"Don't die," I whispered as I pulled away, my tone pleading.

He nodded his head, turned from me and was gone.

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**Before you guys start freaking out and thinking, "That shoreline description from the very beginning was completely unrealistic!"... Let me defend myself:**

**I'm taking a marine biology class (btw, if you hate science but have to take it, marine biology is the way to go...its so much fun!) right now at school, and we've studied what storms do to the underlying oceans. I've seen 'before and after' pictures of brilliantly colored coral reefs (that have taken tens of years to develop) being completely decimated simply by the force of water moving around them because of a storm.**

**So it's possible! **

**Haha sorry, I just wanted to make sure you all didn't think I was completely psycho.**

** Anywho...let me know what you think, okay? **


	13. Chapter 12

**I hit 200 reveiws with the last chapter! Woot!! You guys are amazing...I can't even begin to thank you all enough! **

**I wrote this chapter with my appreciation in mind, so I hope you like it! ;D**

**We don't get to hear much from Miley in this chapter, but she'll be back next chapter! **

**Read on...**

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_Jake's POV_

This was not a good idea. In fact, it was probably the worst idea I'd ever had…in my entire life. I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I stepped out of that cave to retrieve the belongings Miley and I had left laying on the forest floor.

It had been raining hard when I'd first deposited Miley in the safety of the cave, but it was raining twice as hard now. Previously, I had been able to see at least a few feet in front of me through the pouring rain, but now I couldn't see more than a few inches. The only reason I knew where I was going was because I'd walked through this forest so many times in the past few days I had its lay-out memorized. My eyes were carefully focused on the ground, watching for any irregularities in the path; I definitely didn't want to wind up in the same situation as Miley.

A grimace made its way across my face. It was completely my fault she was sitting in the cave in pain right now. I had been in such a hurry to get us to safety, I had ended up hurting her. I would have to make sure to somehow make it up to her when I got back to the cave, I mused to myself as I finally came upon our belongings.

Moving everything to the cave was easier said that done. I somehow had to manage to hold three fairly large items in two hands. The pillow was soaked from laying in the rain for so long, and there was probably little hope it would dry out before we laid down to sleep that night. I sighed and moved to unzip the suitcase, hoping I could shove the pillow into it, even though it was already stuffed to the max. I somehow managed to just barely squeeze the pillow in and zip it shut. Grabbing the suit case in one hand and the sack of fish in the other, I turned to make my way back to the cave.

Lightning lit up the sky every few seconds it seemed. The thunder was never-ending, and my ears became numb from the constant rumbling that surrounded me. The storm couldn't be any more than a few miles off, if it wasn't already right above us. The constant stream of lightning flashes was testimony to that. The wind had picked up to deadly forces, slowing me down greatly. For every one step I took forward, it felt like the wind pushed me back three or four. Twigs were snapping off of their branches all over the place, and the broken pieces kept flying into my face and hitting my chest. I could feel the scratches that were being created every time something would fly into me, but I had to grit my teeth through the pain and get back to Miley.

I was almost to the bottom of the mountain when it happened. Lightning struck the tree next to me, and it caught on fire. I jumped back in surprise as it began to waver from its sturdy foundations. Louder than what we had heard the night before, the tree snapped from its roots. It furiously fell in my direction, sending leaves and flames rushing towards me. I dropped the suit case and sack of fish as I tried to jump out of the way of the massive tree trunk, but I wasn't fast enough.

_Miley's POV_

I was in so much pain, tears had started leaking down my cheeks. There was a constant throbbing sensation radiating from my ankle upwards through my body. Physically, I was exhausted. Mentally, I was exhausted. I'd never been this badly hurt before in my entire life, and I was experiencing a new level of pain I was not accustomed to and it was taking its toll on me. I kept trying to breathe deeply, hoping the calming breaths would sooth the pain. I'd seen it done on those birthing shows to help women through the pain of pregnancy. If it worked for them, it could work for me, right?

Add to that the fact that I was still terrified for Jake's safety and one would call me a complete mess. I jumped at even the slightest sound from the cave entrance, every time hoping to see his smiling face peeking through the whole at me. He'd been gone for I didn't know how long, and I was extremely worried. It had to have been at least an hour and a half, and it didn't take more than ten minutes to reach the cave from the shoreline when the skies were clear. The rain couldn't be so bad that it would take Jake this long to find our belongings, which only increased my worry.

I wanted to get up and look for him, but I knew that would be an incredibly stupid thing for me to do. He was risking his life to protect mine, and if I went in search of him and got killed in the process, all of his efforts would have been in vane.

So, I did the only thing I could do at a time like this: I cried. Long, hard sobs escaped me, expressing my frustrations at the situation that had been thrown upon us. It didn't take long before I collapsed against the wall of the cave in exhaustion and welcomed the blackness that consumed me.

_Jake's POV_

I was stuck, and I didn't know what to do. Luckily, I hadn't been hurt when the tree had made its crash landing, but it had blocked the only pathway I knew up the mountain, covering it with fire. Frantic, I looked around, searching for a way around the fiery log that wouldn't take me too far from the pathway.

The whole process was made more difficult by the fact that the rain had turned into hail. Little pellets of ice kept hitting the top of my head, and though they were small, I was sure they would get larger as the center of the storm reached us.

Grabbing the belongings I had dropped in surprise, I tried my best to hold both tightly in one hand and held the other out in front of me, trying desperately to prevent myself from walking into any trees as I bravely stepped off the beaten path. Slowly, I trudged my way across the muddy forest ground, moving my hand from tree to tree.

After what felt like forever, I noticed the ground I was walking on started to slant in an upwards direction. Assuming I had finally found the base of the mountain, I began to make my way up it, one step at a time. It took me at least twenty minutes to make my way up the mountain side because I kept slipping in the mud, and another twenty minutes to find the opening to our cave.

When I finally found it, I first threw the stuff in my hands to the side door, and then wiggled my way in. I looked up to find Miley curled up against the far wall of the cave, one arm under her head, the other curled up next to her chest. Her face was all red and splotchy, and I realized she had been crying. My heart broke as I looked at the girl I cared so much about…she had probably been terrified when it took me so long to come back.

Without thinking, I opened the suitcase and pulled out the blanket. Miraculously, not that much rain had seeped through the cloth fabric of the suit case so the belongings inside were fairly dry. I first laid the pillow to the side to help it dry out, and then I crawled over to Miley, and draped the blanket across her slightly shivering body. My hand reached out and lightly brushed back the lock of hair that had fallen into her face. She sighed contentedly and curled into the blanket.

Knowing she was probably exhausted from her ankle, I decided to let her continue to sleep. Plus, I still had one more thing to do. Sighing, I took one last look at her beautifully peaceful face before I made my way back to the entrance. I was planning on searching the immediate area of the cave for small pieces of wood that we could use to cook the fish with. It would take them a while to dry out though, especially since there was no warm air outside to help, and the sooner I got the out of the rain, the sooner I could make dinner for us.

Once again, I stepped out into the pouring rain. The hail seemed to have stopped, at least for the time being, which was a welcome blessing amongst the many trials we had faced so far that day. However, the wind was just as fierce as it had been before, and I had to continually twist my fingers into the shrubbery at my feet for leverage to keep from being blown over. I ventured no more than a few feet from the entrance and managed to collect a decent amount of small twigs. After deciding I had enough, I made my way back to the cave and deposited them with the sac of fish.

That done, I pulled out the small first aid kit we had discovered and opened it up, looking through its contents. I needed to put some form of antibiotic on the many small scrapes on my chest or I would end up with an infection. Smiling slightly in amazement, I realized I was so numb from the cold rain I couldn't feel any of the stinging sensation I was sure the scrapes were sending through my body.

It took a good ten minutes to cover all of the scrapes on my chest because there were so many of them. When that I was finally done, I set about looking for something sturdier to wrap Miley's ankle in. I quickly found what looked like an Ace bandage and pulled it out, realizing that would be the perfect thing to use. I didn't want to wrap her ankle while she was asleep though, as I was sure the pain would wake her immediately and I knew she needed this time to rest.

Instead, I propped myself against the far wall and gazed at her, waiting for her to wake up. It wasn't long before she began to stir. Letting out a wide yawn, she slowly opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings. When she finally set sight on me, a wide smile spread on her face.

"You're okay!" she yelled at me in excitement, sitting up with the blanket still around her.

I smiled back at her, before softly murmuring, "Yep…I'm okay. Well, for the most part."

She paused, the smile slipping from her face. "For the most part? What do you mean for the most part?"

I gestured to my chest. "The wind kept blowing broken branches at me while I was trying to make my way back to the cave and I got all scratched up. But it's no big. The first aid kit came in handy, though."

She nodded, taking in my chest. "Thank God you made it back though!" she exclaimed, bringing her eyes back up to mine, "I was so worried because you were gone so long."

"About that…A bolt of lightning struck a tree and made it collapse on the pathway I was walking on. I couldn't climb over because the entire thing was in flames. I was gone so long because I was trying to find a way around the fallen tree without killing myself," I explained, "But enough about me, how do you feel?"

She sighed. "Honestly? Like complete, utter crap. I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep to tell you the truth…"

I made my way to her across the cave floor.

"Let me see you ankle," I softly instructed and she laid her leg across my lap.

I carefully untied my tee-shirt, assessing the damage.

"It doesn't look too bad…" I was secretly grateful for that. If I had harmed her beyond the point of recovery with my little actions I would have hated myself for forever.

She nodded, looking down at her swollen ankle. "It doesn't hurt as bad as it did before. Before it hurt so badly I couldn't do anything but cry."

My eyes jumped to hers, looking deep into them. "I'm so sorry, Miles…If I hadn't been in such a hurry to get us back to this cave, you wouldn't have tripped."

She looked surprised at my remorse, and responded with, "Don't be sorry. You were trying to get us to safety. You were being a guy, letting your natural instinct to protect take over. Sure I won't be able to walk for a few days, but where is there to walk? In case you hadn't noticed, we're stuck in a cave in the middle of a mountain while a storm rages outside. I don't plan on going out there while the thunder is still rumbling."

She was right, and I voiced my agreement. "Okay, you're right. I just feel so bad for being the cause of your pain…"

I pulled her against me in a tight hug, careful not to jostle her enflamed ankle, before whispering, "I promise to never let you get hurt, ever again."

I felt her giggle against my chest and she whispered back, "Don't make promises you can't keep, silly. Accidents happen. All you have to do is be there to pick up the pieces."

I thought about that a minute, before softly vowing, "Well, then I promise to always be there to pick up the pieces."

She nodded and said, "I plan on holding you to that."

I smiled before telling her, "Good, I plan on you planning on you…planning to…always holding me to that."

She laughed louder and pulled away from me, looking into my eyes before informing me, "That made no sense at all!"

"Of course it did! You just have to have…..Jake Ryan logic?" I tried to defend myself.

She rolled her eyes, the laughter evident in their shining blue depths. "Nice try, ego-boy. That's not a good excuse. Got anything else?"

I opened my mouth to respond with an equally good explanation before snapping it shut. "Nope…I got nothing."

This time her laughter was loud and carefree. It was my favorite sound in the entire world.

"You wanna know something cool?" she asked as she settled against my chest again.

I nodded, my chin against the top of her head.

"I'm not scared!" she informed me excitedly. "The thunder outside has been going practically non-stop since I got into this cave, and I'm not scared at all."

I was silently laughing, amused at her cute pride.

"You are a brave girl," I lightly teased, as if I was talking to a five year old that had slept without a nightlight on for the first time ever.

She pulled away from me, lightly smacking me on the chest. I hissed in pain…I was slowly regaining sensation throughout my body. "Ooo…watch the cuts…" I muttered through the stinging sensation.

She gasped lightly, before softly exclaiming, "Oh Jake…I'm so sorry!"

"Its okay…you'll just have to make it up to me," I looked deep into her eyes, hoping she would catch my drift.

She sighed as if she was being put out, before she said, "Okay…if you insist."

Then she leaned towards me and softly brushed her lips against mine. After a few seconds, she moved to pull away but I gently pulled her back against me, muttering, "I'm still in quite a bit of pain…"

She nodded her 'okay' and planted her lips against mine again. Her lips were so soft and gentle, and I wanted nothing more than to beg entrance into her hot mouth. I teased her bottom lip with my tongue and she parted her lips, allowing the entrance I sought. Our tongues dueled with a fiery passion for a few minutes before I pulled away.

Resting my forehead against hers, I softly whispered, "You're amazing…"

She smiled slightly and responded just as quietly with, "You're not too bad yourself, Mr. Ryan."

Blood rushed to my face as a blush crept up my cheeks. "Thank you…" I trailed off. "Now…let's do something about that ankle of yours."

I grabbed the Ace bandage off the cave floor and set about wrapping it firmly around her ankle to hold it in place. When that was done, I gently placed her foot on the cave floor, and then pulled her back into my lap.

"Can we sit like this forever?" I asked, resting my head against her soft, brown hair.

She sighed. "No…we have to move eventually, you know that. But we can stay like this for now."

"Works for me…" I mumbled, inhaling her amazing scent.

I dropped my head against the cave wall behind me. "What did I ever do to deserve this?" I questioned more to myself than to Miley.

She looked up from her spot against my chest. "You were yourself. That's all you ever had to do, Jake, just be yourself…not the ego-maniac you were all those times at school. I like _you, _the person, not you, the movie star."

All I could do was smile at her quiet revelation, pulling her tighter against me.

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**So...what do you think? Haha...personally, I think I might've gone a little fluff overboard...but I'm sure you guys don't mind. Anywho, let me know, okay?! **


	14. Chapter 13

**I have no excuses for why this chapter took so long other than I was having a VERY lazy week. I couldn't seem to figure out where to go with this chapter for a while, so I got lazy and stopped writing it. **

**But! I finally have it done, and because it's so late, I skipped the beta process to get it to you. Which means you can't be to harsh with the errors, kay?**

**And to my amazing betas, I'm very sorry. You are all still wonderful and the next chapter will be sent to you to look over first! **

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We were bored…B-O-R-E-D, bored! There was no other way to put it. Sitting in this cave, with nothing to do, while a storm raged outside, just wasn't our ideal way of passing time. The worst part was, we had been stuck in this cave for exactly four days now. I was keeping count, that's how bored I was.

Actually…it had come to me while we were lying down to go to sleep the first night in the cave. I wanted to keep track of our time on this forsaken island, so I'd picked up a rock, made my way to the far wall of the cave and crudely scratched a single line representing our first day in the cave. After a few moments, I had reached out and scratched another three lines in the wall to represent our first three days on the island.

I had to admit, I never thought we would be on this island for so long. We were on our seventh day on the island, and it seemed that as long as we were stuck in the middle of the storm, we had no chance of being rescued at all.

"Jake…I'm bored…" I whined aloud. He was bored too, and there wasn't really anything else he could do to help me pass the time. We had talked about everything under the sun, and honestly, I was running out of conversation starters.

Jake sighed at me. "I know you're bored, Miley, because I am, too. But what am I supposed to do? I can't change the weather, and I'm NOT letting you venture outside with the wind blowing like it is...you can't even walk yet."

He was right. I was still unable to walk because of my ankle. I'd been able to put slight amounts of pressure on it for a few minutes at a time for the last day or so, but every time I'd tried to rest the full weight of my body on it for more than a few seconds, I'd all but collapsed into Jake's steady arms in pain.

I thought for a moment, trying to figure out how we could pass the time.

"Tell me a story!" I suddenly suggested. He was an actor, they were supposed to be good with spontaneity, right?

Jake looked at me with surprise on his face.

"Tell you a story?" he slowly asked.

"Yes, a story. Make something up and tell me a story about it. But it has to be happy…" I declared with a gleeful smile on my face.

Jake shrugged his shoulders in a 'sure, why not?' kind of way and scrunched his eyebrows in thought.

After a few minutes, he exclaimed, "I got it!" and began his story.

"Once upon a time, in a land far, far from here, lived a little girl with gorgeous brown hair and beautiful blue eyes…The end!" he exclaimed happily with a smirk on his face.

I rolled my eyes. "Jake…that was a pathetic story."

Jake laughed at me before responding, "Yeah, I know…but what do you want from me? I'm not good with making up stories; I'm just good at acting them out. Besides, I figured out how to pass time."

"Oh?" I asked him, curious about his new idea.

"Yep…come here," he called to me. I was sitting against the far wall of the cave, directly across from him.

Confused, I crawled my way towards him, careful not to let my foot drag on the ground so it wouldn't bend out of place.

He gestured for me to sit right in front of him, and I did so. A few seconds later, I felt his soft hands against my shoulders, and realized he was going to give me a massage.

"Uh…Jake? Not that I'm complaining, but why are you giving me a massage?" I quietly asked, questioning his actions.

He explained, "Because _you're_ bored."

I huffed in indignation. "Don't even pretend that you aren't bored also!"

Jake laughed softly and responded, "Of course I'm bored. But I still really haven't said sorry for making you twist your ankle, and since I can't really go buy you flowers or anything like that, I'm gunna give you a massage."

I was just fine with that, so I stopped complaining and focused on the feelings of his fingers working against my neck muscles. His hands were magic. There was no other way to explain it. He knew exactly where to focus his attention on, spending more time where I was most tense at. I felt myself turning to jelly against his hands, and before I knew it, my head started to drop as I began to doze off.

Just as I was about to let myself drift off into a welcome nap, Jake's hands stopped their pursuit of my muscles.

I quietly moaned in protest. "Hey, who said you could stop?"

Jake shushed me. "Listen…" he prompted, and I tried to hear what he was listening too, but I couldn't figure it out.

"What am I supposed to hear?" I asked as I twisted from my spot in front of him to look into his eyes.

"Nothing," was the only response I got.

"What?" I was thoroughly confused.

"It's stopped raining!"

I paused again, focusing on the sounds coming from the entrance of the cave and realized rain wasn't one of them.

"Do you think it means the storm is over?" I wondered aloud.

Jake shrugged his shoulders and replied, "There's only one way to find out."

He got up and walked towards the entrance of the cave. When he reached it, he poked his head outside to see if the skies had cleared. After a few seconds, he pulled his head back inside and walked back over to me.

"Well…it's still really cloudy outside, but the wind is almost completely gone. I think that might be a good sign."

"Well, what do we do now?" I asked him, wondering if I was finally going to be able to breathe fresh air.

"We? We don't to anything." Jake pointed at my ankle. "You stay here, and I'll go outside and assess the damage and see if the storm really seems to have passed."

I sighed in frustration. I was tired of not being able to do anything other than sit and look pretty, and I couldn't even do the 'looking pretty' part because I was stuck on an island that had absolutely nothing on it to help me look pretty.

"Jake, please don't make me stay in here if I can go out there. I feel so…useless. I need to do something!" I looked at Jake with pleading eyes, hoping he would feel my pain.

Jake looked at me for a minute, as if trying to decide if he should give in. After a while, his shoulders dropped in defeat.

"Let me go see if the ground around us is stable enough, and then you can hop on my back and I'll carry you outside for a few minutes. But please, let me go explore first. I need to know that you'll be safe if I take you out there. I don't want you to get hurt again." It was his turn to silently plead with me.

But I was more than happy with his option, so I excitedly nodded my head 'okay' and pulled my knees to my chest, hugging them against me as I eagerly waited for him to return.

Jake shook his head at my excitement and left the cave to explore outside.

When he returned a few minutes later, I was ecstatic to see he had a huge smile spread across his face.

"Well," he began, smiling down at me, "It seems like the storm might finally be over. It's still a little cloudy above us, but I looked out across the ocean and saw nothing but clear skies."

I squealed in excitement. "Finally! I was getting so tired of sitting in this cave! Get me out of here, please?!"

Jake laughed.

"Okay, I'll carry you outside, but I don't know if we'll go all the way to the beach. The ground could still be unstable farther down the mountain," he told me, and turned around so I could climb onto his back.

I wanted to go down to the beach and see if our hut had survived, but I knew better than to argue with Jake. He was being nice enough to take me outside in the first place, and I didn't want to make him mad or anything.

"Deal!" I jumped up, well as best I could with my bandaged ankle, and hopped on my good foot over to Jake's back. After a few minutes, I was happily situated in his arms, and he squeezed us out of the cave.

The first thing I did when Jake stepped onto the wet grass in front of the cave was take a deep breath.

"Ahh….the smell of fresh air!"

"You make it sound like it completely smelled in the cave or something," Jake complained to me. "It wasn't that bad."

"Are you kidding? It smells like wet mold in the cave because we were wearing wet clothes the first day!"

"Oh…so THAT'S what that smell was?" Jake exclaimed, pretending to be surprised. "I had no idea."

I gently smacked the back of his head. "Be nice," I warned.

Jake chuckled, and I felt his body move against mine.

"Come on, Miles. I know being in that cave sucked, and it might've smelled a little bit, but at least it kept us alive."

I nodded my head in understanding, and then realized Jake couldn't see it.

"You're right. I'm just happy to smell fresh air!" I exclaimed the last part, emphasizing my excitement. "So…Can we try to make it to the beach?"

Jake seemed to spend a few minutes thinking about it, before agreeing to at least attempt to get us to the beach.

And so, we set off down the hill, taking in the damage the storm had wreaked on the island along the way.

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**I know, I know...this chapter was completely boring. And really short. Don't hate me? We'll just call it one of those transition chapters or whatever where nothing exciting happens but you need them to make the story make sense. Deal?**

**Anywho, let me know what you think anyways, okay?**


	15. Chapter 14

**Alright, Chapter 14 is finally here. I have excuses for its lateness, but you probably don't want to here them.**

**I do have to let everyone know though, updates are probably going to slow down. :/ **

**I've got three weeks left in the semester, so everything is piling up. To make my point, I've got four different tests in the next three days, two of which are full blown essay tests... I put off studying for a test tomorrow and writing a paper that's due on Tuesday just to get this up today. I hate that it happens, but my real world is colliding with my school world and it's not pretty. On top of that, I've got to figure out what courses I'm taking next semester and what schools I want to transfer to and fill out applications...It's lame. **

**I'm going to try for at least once a week, but I can't guarantee anything...and I'm very sorry to do this to you guys. Don't worry, I hate it, too. **

**Anyways, I hope you like this chapter. The beta's gave it their blessing, so it should be good:D **

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The journey to the beach was difficult to say the least. Every few minutes, I would have to readjust myself on Jake's back for fear of falling off because he kept losing his balance. It took a while, but when we finally made it to the shoreline we weren't in the least bit surprised. It looked sort of like a storm had just hit the island, and hey, one had! The wreckage that surrounded us didn't faze us one bit as Jake began to maneuver through the debris, trying to lead us to our hut. Somehow, it had miraculously survived the storm more or less, intact. The roof had been blown off, and the front and back wall had caved in, but the side walls were still standing tall and proud, and for that, I was grateful.

I hugged myself against Jake's back, contemplating how lucky we were. The storm had been bad, and we had survived. Sure, we were bruised a bit, but our hearts were still beating and that was what mattered. I silently thanked the heavens for looking out for us, and then concentrated on the feeling of Jake's back underneath my arms.

He was so strong and sturdy. I laid my cheek against his shoulder blade, breathing in his scent as I thought about all the things he had done for me since we'd been on the island: The way he'd held me during the storms, the way he'd caught fish for us to eat and then roasted it himself, the way he'd carried me up the mountain and risked his life to go back for our belongings. I was still surprised, but proud to say, that Jake Ryan was a perfect gentleman. I was slightly shocked by it, considering he was an 18 year old guy, but he had proved many times to me that he was so much more than that.

I was giving in to his subtle charms, and I knew it. I wanted to feel his arms wrapped around me as we slept every night, and not feel guilty about it because he wasn't 'my man.' I wanted to plant my lips against his velvety soft ones and feel the pleasure erupt in my body that only he had seemed to create so far. It was intoxicating, the way he made me feel like no other guy had before by simply laying a warm hand against my arm. I wanted to feel what he felt when he looked at me, because I knew it was strong.

Sighing, I nuzzled my head against his back, closing my eyes in comfort and security.

"Hey. Don't you fall asleep on me," Jake warned, jumping up and down a bit to jostle me awake, "We've got a hut to rebuild."

I snorted. "We've? What am I going to do? I can't walk remember?"

He froze. "You're right. And it's all my fault. So you are going to sit and relax while I fix the hut. I refuse to let you even attempt to help."

Rolling my eyes, I smacked the top of his head. "Don't be stupid. Of course I can help. I'll just sit on the ground and push the sand around the logs or something. I was just kidding."

"No really, Miley. I don't want you to help. You need to concentrate-"

"Oh would you get over yourself already!" I interrupted. "Accidents happen! I'm fine, Jake. Quit blaming yourself for hurting me. I don't blame you, so you shouldn't blame you!"

That seemed to shut him up. He nodded his head softly, and knelt down on the sand by the hut so I could slide off his back. Without looking back, he stood up to start working on fixing the front wall.

"Hey…" I softly called to him, realizing that my yelling was hurting him more than my ankle would ever hurt me.

Jake turned to me and sighed, his eyes focusing intently on anything but me.

"Come here."

I held my hand out, motioning to Jake to sit next to me. He did so, and I leaned my head against his shoulder.

Taking his hand in mine, I slowly began speaking. "Please, Jake, quit beating yourself up over what happened. It wasn't your fault. I'm going to be fine, I promise. I can already lightly stand on my ankle. I didn't mean to make you feel so guilty just now. I was just trying to have a little bit of fun. I don't want to be stuck on this island with a mopey Jake. I want the Jake that pokes fun at me and laughs at me. I want the Jake I argue with just for fun. My Jake would have made some smart-ass remark about me claiming I couldn't help…Where is he?"

Jake's hand reached up and softly grasped my chin, pulling my face to meet his. He spoke clearly as he looked deep into my eyes.

"Trust me, Miley, I want to be that Jake. And I desperately want to be _your_ Jake. It's just….ever since you got hurt…all I've been able to think about is, what if it had been worse? What if I had hurt you beyond healing?"

"And then I start to think about something else hurting you, like a tree falling on you or something. And then I can't help but wonder, what would I do if something you couldn't recover from happened out here?"

"Miley, I know I've only known you for a few months, and I know you don't feel the same way about me…"

Jake trailed off, trying to collect his thoughts. "But if you got seriously hurt out here, I don't think I'd be able to keep going. You're the reason I haven't given up hope yet. You're my source of strength. And somehow I hurt you….I just…I don't want you to hate me."

I didn't know what to say. I knew he cared about me, but the way he was talking was completely new to me. The emotions written in his eyes told of a new, different feeling. In my heart, I knew what it was, but I wasn't brave enough to name it. So, I did the only thing I knew of to do at a moment like this: I kissed him.

It wasn't like the first time we had kissed in the water; we weren't two mindless teenagers being overpowered by our sex-drive. And it wasn't like the time I'd kissed him for reassurance before he left to retrieve our belongings.

This was something entirely different, and I had no clue how to categorize it. It was like finding your own personal sanctuary. His lips against mine were a reminder of the changes that had happened in the last seven days, but I knew deep down that this meant so much more to him: This was me showing him that the strong, passionate man I had come to depend on was finally beginning to win the girl he'd been chasing for so long. This was me reassuring him that I really was going to be okay, and he could release his guilt. Most importantly though, this was Jake seeking comfort _from_ me in return for all the times he'd comforted _me_. His hand dropped mine, moving with the other one to hold my face against his. I moved my left hand to softly rub against his cheek, the other one I tangled in his hair.

Slowly, he pulled away from me, breathing deeply. His eyes opened, and he stared deep into mine.

"Miley?"

His voice was no more than a breath of air, hardly a whisper, with the unspoken question of what the kiss had meant.

"Yes."

My response was just as soft, and just like that, we were no longer friends. We were two (almost) adults giving in to what our bodies, our minds, our _hearts_ had been screaming at us for days: we were supposed to be together.

That beautiful smile I loved so much made its way across Jake's face, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Oh Miley…" he whispered, his voice full of emotion, as he pressed his lips against mine again, this time briefly, before pulling me into his lap and wrapping his arms around me in a fierce hug.

"You just made me the happiest man alive," he softly spoke into my ear.

I giggled lightly. "You make it sound like I just accepted a marriage proposal or something."

I felt Jake's smile widen against the side of my head, as if he knew something I didn't know, but now was not the time to question it.

* * *

Later that night, we sat next to our recently built fire. 

We had finished rebuilding the hut some time ago, and I'd spent a while clearing what I could from the sand surrounding it, removing the dead seaweed while Jake had trekked back to the cave to bring back our stuff.

This time, we made more of an effort to make our hut more 'homey' because we were beginning to realize it was going to take a while for the rescue crews to find us, especially after the big storm. We had ended up enlarging the entire thing using the many logs that had been washed ashore during the storm. Now it was long enough for us to both lie flat out and still have several feet above and below our heads, and wide enough for us to lie side by side and still have plenty of room for the suitcase to lay propped open against the back wall. It wasn't perfect, but it was ours, built with our own hands, and we were extremely proud of it. It kind of reminded me of newlyweds buying their first house.

I was currently attempting to sew a second blanket, one we could lay underneath us in addition to the one we slept under. I had decided if we were going to be stuck here for a while, I wanted us to be comfortable.

Jake was working on making a spear. It was taking him a while, because he didn't really have a lot to work with, but his project was coming along. So far, he had managed to sharpen an already fairly pointy rock by striking it with another rock, and was working to attach it to a long wooden pole.

Watching him, I felt my mouth curve into a smile, and a quiet giggle escaped me.

Jake looked up at me, a brilliant smile on his face. He hadn't stopped smiling since our kiss earlier.

"What are you laughing at?"

I shook my head, responding, "Nothing."

"You're lying."

I nodded, "I am."

Jake's smile widened. "So you don't want to tell me?"

I shook my head no.

"Well fine then. I'll just have to make you."

He dropped his project and tackled me, making me fall back into the sand.

Loud laughter escaped my mouth as his hands moved over my stomach, tickling me all over.

"Jake! Stop!" I managed to exclaim through my laughter.

"Not until you tell me what you were laughing about!" He yelled wildly, an evil smile on his face.

"Never!"

I managed to escape, and began crawling away, my sewing project forgotten in the sand.

Jake just raised his eyebrows, falling back onto his butt in the sand as he watched my pathetic attempt to escape with my injured ankle. He let me get a fair distance away, before exclaiming, "You really think you can escape from me?!" and jumping up from the sand and rushing towards me.

And excited scream made its way out of my mouth, as I curled into a ball, trying to protect all of my most ticklish spots. I braced myself, preparing for his hands to attack me, but the attack never came.

Curious, I opened my previously closed eyes, wondering what had happened to my pursuer.

"Jake?" I curiously called out, but he didn't respond. I turned in the sand, looking for him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Jake?" I called out again, this time louder. My body was humming in anticipation, knowing he was playing a trick on me and I was probably going to get it when I finally found him.

"Jake…Come out, come out, wherever you are!" I sang out loud, rotating myself in the sand. There still wasn't any response, and I decided to listen and see if I could hear him sneaking up behind me. I concentrated hard on the sounds surrounding me, but only heard the gentle crash of the waves against the shore. Utterly stumped, I shrugged my shoulders and decided to make my way to the hut. I would just lie down and take a nap until Jake decided to show himself.

I crawled into the hut, my eyes watching the sand beneath me. That was a big mistake.

"Gotcha!" Jake yelled as he attacked me from the corner of the hut.

I was doomed. There was no other choice but to grit my teeth and try to contain my laughter as Jake's hands tickled every part of me. I was laughing so hard, I could barely breathe. But just as soon as the attack had started, Jake pulled away from me. I sat up, taking a few minutes to try to catch my breath.

I looked up at him, seeing a question burning in his eyes.

"What is it?"

Jake looked away from me. "So does this mean you're my girlfriend?"

His cheeks were red in embarrassment, and I couldn't help my response. "I don't know…I mean, there are so many other fine men around here. Jimmy won't leave me alone you know. He keeps pestering me about going on that date with him…he's a very sweet guy."

Jake rolled his eyes. "I just meant, can we start doing couple-y stuff now?"

Realization dawned in my mind as I realized where he was going with this, and I innocently asked, "Like what?"

A smirk appeared on his face as he responded, "Like this."

And then, Jake slammed his lips against mine, and all previous thought was forgotten as I gave in to the feeling of his lips against mine.

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**You know what to do! It's that little button down there that says 'Go!'. Go on, press it. You know you want to. **

**I promise to try to get the next chapter out soon...be patient with me, please? I'm only human, haha. **

**Kudos to wolfwhisperer for the 'fine men' line. It was her idea, I just borrowed it. :D **


	16. Chapter 15

**Hola readers! Happy Thanksgiving! **

**Here's Chapter 15. It's pretty short...shorter than the rest of the chapters, but I really wanted to get something up today because NO ONE seems to be updating since its the holiday season, and I liked the last line too much to continue writing this chapter. **

**But...at least you have something to read, right? Anywho...off you read!

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**

She was exquisite. She was perfect. She was amazing. She was…there were no words to describe how absolutely beautiful Miley Stewart was. She had just the right amount of sass to keep my on my toes, but underneath it all she was a hopelessly romantic teenage girl, and I loved it. She was beyond perfect, and I never would have dreamed that one day I would be holding the girl of my dreams in my arms as I listened to her soft snores.

The way she had smiled at me earlier when I'd pulled away from our kiss had made my heart melt, and I was going to make sure she smiled that way often. I wanted nothing more than to be in this exact same position every night for the rest of my life. No wait, I take that back. I would love to be in this same position every night, but being in this position on a real bed would be twenty times better.

Wincing, I arched my back, trying to stretch the pain out of it. I was sore from sleeping on the hard rock of the cave floor the last seven nights in a row, and while I was grateful to be sleeping on the sand, it was doing nothing to help my already aching back. On top of that, Miley had comfortably fell asleep resting her head on my arm, her face towards mine, and it was such a cute sight that I hadn't had the heart to tell her she was making my arm fall asleep as she slipped into a peaceful slumber. But now, my entire arm was completely numb, and it wasn't very comfortable.

Carefully, I slipped my hand around Miley's back, looking for the pillow she had forgone in favor of my arm. I grabbed it, then slowly pulled my arm out from underneath her cheek, being careful to slide the pillow in its place. It was a tedious process, but eventually my arm was free and Miley was still snoring away. I gave my arm a shake, trying to wake it up, and a grateful smile made its way across my face as I felt the familiar tingles being to shoot up my arm.

Smiling, I turned to look down into the face I had come to care for so much. I reached out with my now completely awake arm and lightly brushed my fingers against her cheek, taking in the softness I came in contact with. Miley sighed in her sleep, and subconsciously nuzzled her head against my palm. A soft, "Jake…" escaped her mouth, and my heart soared as I realized I was in her dreams.

Dropping my hand, I turned to crawl out of our hut. There was no way I was going to be able to fall asleep right now: my back hurt way too much. I stepped out into the crisp air, pulling my jacket tighter around me. Walking towards the shore, I concentrated on the feeling of the sand between my toes. It was cold, and every step I took gave me a slight chill, but I didn't mind. I paused on my walk to throw another log into the dying fire. I was going to be awake for a while, and I wanted something to keep me warm. When I got to the shore, I paused, looking out across the ocean. The sky was beautiful, there was not a cloud in sight and the stars were more visible than ever. Taking a deep breath, I inhaled the cool scent of the ocean, being turning back to the fire.

I plopped myself in front of it, and began to think. How was it that no one had found us yet? The question still frustrated me. Every surface of our earth had been explored and mapped by someone at some point in history; there was no way we could be stuck on an undiscovered island. I mean, honestly, we had satellites circling the globe twenty-four seven for goodness sake. If someone had missed an island before, surely it would have been picked up by the satellite, right? I sighed, letting myself fall back into the sand, my head resting against my arms. I was beginning to think we'd never make it off this island, and the though terrified me.

I wanted to go home. I wanted to finish high school, make more movies, and see my family. I wanted to hug my mom and shake hands with my dad and kiss my silly little sister on her forehead just for the sake of watching her face scrunch up in disgust. I wanted my life back, not this survivor life that had been forced upon me. I wasn't a survivor. I was a major celebrity, people handed things to me. I had been strong at first, but I was beginning to break down. I wanted to be strong for Miley, but at the same time…I wanted someone to be there for me. I wanted to have someone to turn to and ask, "Am I doing this right? Am I going to keep us alive?" I wanted my dad.

A lone tear began to trail its way down the side of my face, falling into the sand below me. Damn it! This wasn't supposed to happen! Sitting up quickly, I roughly wiped my hand against my face, trying to remove the offending evidence of my emotions. Frustrated, I jumped up and ran to the nearest tree, slamming my fist into it.

I was angry. I was pissed off. I was…God, I didn't know what I was, but the pain of my hand colliding with the thick trunk somehow felt good-like a release for all the frustration I was keeping bottled up. I slammed my other hand into the tree, trying my hardest to punch with all my might. I did it again, and again, and again, not even bothering to notice the small streams of blood now making their way down my palms, falling into the brush at my feet.

I don't know how long I stood there, slamming my fists into the trunk of the poor tree I had decided to pick on, but before I knew it, exhaustion took over, and I collapsed to my knees, breathing heavily, lost in my own world.

"Jake?" Her voice was soft, thick with sleep.

Hastily, I stood up, trying desperately to wipe away the evidence of my break down. I had to be strong, for Miley. If I was strong, she would be strong and we could make it through this experience. I began to walk towards her, wiping my hands against my pants in an effort to get rid of the blood.

She met me half way.

"What are you doing out here?" I asked her softly. "It's cold, you should be in there sleeping underneath the blanket."

She shrugged, "I woke up without you next to me, I guess. I tried to wait for you to come back 'cause I didn't know where you'd gone. But you took too long…How long have you been out here?"

It was my turn to shrug.

Miley reached her out, trying to take my hand in hers, but I didn't want her to see the cuts I knew were there, so instead I looped her arm through mine, like I was escorting her to the prom or something. She smiled softly, oblivious to what my true intention had been and led us to the fire. We sat in front of it, taking in the warmth.

Looking up at me, Miley opened her mouth to say something, but paused, as if trying to gain the courage to.

"Have you…" she began slowly, her voice unsure. "Have you been crying?"

"No." I lamely responded, shaking my head.

"What happened to your hands?" she asked, trying a different tactic.

"Nothing." I began to pull them away, trying to hide them from the light of the fire.

Miley looked at me, and I saw wisdom beyond her years in her eyes. She grabbed my hands before I could move them, holding them gently, but firmly in hers. "It's okay, you know, if you were crying. I'm not going to judge you, that's not who I am."

"I wasn't, because men that cry are wimps, and I'm not a wimp."

I could have laughed at myself. I sounded pathetic.

"No…" she began. "Men that cry are strong and passionate. Men that cry know that it's okay to let their true feelings be seen, and that takes a lot of courage."

She reached out and softly placed her palm against my cheek, pulling my face so I couldn't avoid her eyes. A tear escaped, trailing down my cheek. Miley brushed it away with her thumb.

"I'm not strong," I mumbled, turning my eyes from hers.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because…I can't handle this!" My raised voice surprised Miley, and she shrunk back a bit. Sighing, I leveled my voice before continuing. "I lost it just now. I lost my calm and cool, my level-headedness. I shouldn't have lost it like that! I should be able to keep it all bottled away, so I can be the strong one…for you."

I was getting frustrated again. My breathing was becoming ragged, and my heart was starting to pound. Miley noticed. Leaning forward, she planted her soft lips against mine, and just like that…I was fine. My breathing calmed, my heart slowed, and I lost all sense of worry as I concentrated on the amazing girl in front of me.

Pulling away, she took a deep breath before opening her mouth to speak. "Don't ever, for a second, think that you aren't strong. You are the strongest man I know, and I'm so sorry that you can't see it for yourself. You've kept us alive, Jake. I would never have been able to catch fish like you have. Without you here with me on this island, I probably would have starved to death already. And when that storm came? You were so brave…carrying me up that mountain then leaving me and venturing back into the storm. You risked your life to protect mine…and I don't know anyone that could do that without having some sort of inner-strength."

She paused, collecting her thoughts.

"It's okay to give into your emotions every now and then…It's what makes us human. Jake, You are my rock. You are the reason I still have the will to live. For me, you are my savior. So don't even consider the idea that you aren't strong, because without your strength…we'd both be dead."

I was at a loss for words. The girl in front of me had single handedly calmed my entire mind, making it possible for me to see the reality of things again. And she'd called me a man, not a boy or a teenager.

"You think I'm a man?"

Miley smiled at me.

"What else would you be? Eighteen year old boys don't risk their lives like you have and remain boys. They don't keep people alive, and remain boys. You may only be eighteen in age, but in mind, in heart, in soul….and to me, you are so much more than that."

A man: that's what I was, and that's what I was going to be…for her, for Miley, for my girl.

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**So, let me know what you think, yeah? **

**I think I might write a little Niley oneshot later and post it in the spirit of Thanksgiving, so keep an eye out for that, yeah? **


	17. Chapter 16

**Hello dear faithful readers! Thank bob you are faithful! I'm doing horrible at updating it seems, but I feel really bad about it and I very much appreciate you sticking with me. **

**I'm thinking this story is about done. My plot lines are almost done, so it shouldn't be too long now. I can't decide how many more chapters I want...But I promise they'll all be good. Well, I hope they'll all be good at least, haha. **

**Anywho...I'm stuck at work, AGAIN, and I'm currently listening to a party group make numerous horrifying attempts at karaoke, so I disappeared into my story to get away from it all. Good news for you guys! Not so good for me...haha. **

**Alright, enough of me. On you read!

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**Oh what I wouldn't give to be greeted by that site every morning for the rest of my life. It was handsome. It was hot. It was sexy. It was Jake Ryan swimming shirtless in the ocean, water droplets cascading over his Greek God abs. Oh yeah, I could definitely spend a day or two, or three or four, sitting here admiring this view.

It was phenomenal.

I had awoken this morning to find I was once again alone. It seemed I was doing a lot of this waking up alone thing. I didn't like it much. I mean, honestly, who would want to wake up cold and alone when they could wake up in the zombie slaying arms of Jake? Not me, that's for sure.

But, here I was, standing in front of our hut, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and basking in the warm sun, and there Jake was, frolicking about in the beautiful blue water and making my cheeks flush.

He was swimming laps…I think. Okay, I really couldn't tell what he was doing in the water. He kept swimming in these giant circles, over and over again, breaststroke style. And he was good at it. Really good. I briefly wondered why the heck Jake was so good at swimming but decided it wasn't important. What was important was me joining that hot body in the water.

A smile broke out on my face as I took off running towards the ocean. I giggled as my feet splashed along the shoreline, before I dived into the warm water. Within seconds, I reached Jake. He saw me approach and stood up in the semi-shallow water to greet me with a smile.

"Good morning," he said when I was close enough to hear him, a wide smile on his face.

I smiled back, swimming over to him and wrapping my arms around his neck. His hands went to my hips in such casual motion, it was like he had been embracing me in his arms for years. Pulling me close, he leaned his face forward to rest his forehead against mine.

"How is my sleeping beauty doing this morning?" he asked softly.

My smile widened. Leaning forward, I brushed my lips against his in a good morning kiss. It was a brave move-I usually wasn't one for promoting intimate contact-but he looked so cute with his hair pushed up every which way, I couldn't contain myself.

"Just fine," I responded before reaching down to grab his hands. I pulled them into my view, scrutinizing his busted knuckles from his break down the night before.

"How are you?" I softly asked, looking up into his eyes.

His face flushed.

"I'm fine," he began. "I'm sorry you had to see that last night, Miley. I didn't really want you to…"

He looked down, clearly embarrassed.

"Hey…" I reached out and pulled his face back up to meet mine. "Don't do that to yourself. You have no reason to be ashamed, silly. If it really bugs you, just think of it as being a chance for us to bond. I got to see a new side of you, and hopefully your trust in me grew just a little bit more."

I stepped back from him, giving him space to breath. I didn't want to suffocate him while he was still dealing with the emotions of last night.

"Whoa, who said you could leave my arms?" He asked me with a smile on his face.

Reaching out, he grabbed my arm and pulled me against him again. Sighing in content, I laid my head against his chest.

He buried his face into the wet hair atop my head.

"Thank you for calming me down last night," I heard him mumble into my hair. "If you hadn't caught me when you did…I would've done a lot more damage to myself."

"What are you talking about?" I softly asked, worry evident in my voice. I pulled away to look into his eyes. "You wouldn't have seriously hurt yourself, would you?"

His arms tightened around me, pulling me back into his arms.

"Nah…not knowing you still needed me…" he trailed off. "But if I was alone, I might've done something bad. Not last night, but if I was still stuck here two years from now…I might."

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"But, why?"

He sighed. Apparently he didn't really like this topic of conversation.

"Come on," he whispered and began pulling me towards the shore and out of the water. "Let's get something on the fire so we can eat, and then I'll tell you."

I willingly let myself be pulled out of the water, and settled in the sand in front of the fire when we reached it.

He took a deep breath as he began to tell me his story.

"My mom is bipolar, like, hardcore bipolar. Some days she'll be happier than the sun, and other days she'll spend the entire day in bed tinkering on the brink of suicide…"

He trailed off, and I reached out a hand to grab his, holding it comfortingly. He smiled at my small gesture.

"The only reason my mom is still alive is because my dad seems to know exactly how to handle her. Even on her worst days, he knows exactly what to say and do to keep her from falling over that line.

"When I was born, there was a 50/50 chance I would inherit her disorder. But we wouldn't really know until I got older, 'cause it's one of those 'adult-onset' disorders...

"They say if the faulty gene runs in your DNA, there's a chance you may never actually exhibit symptoms of the disorder. It all has to do with your environment. As long as you remain in a stable environment during growth and stuff like that, the disorder never develops. But if you grow up in a rough environment, the disorder begins to make itself known…My mom grew up in a rough family. Her dad abused her and my grandma for years…"

I gasped. No wonder Jake was so caring. He was trying to prove that there were good men in the world-men that didn't take women for granted. Looking at Jake, I nodded reassuringly, urging him to continue.

"My parents did everything they could to make sure I grew up in a stable environment, but I was the stubborn one that wanted to spend my days bouncing around the world making movies. I grew up under a lot of stress…

"And now that I'm hitting adulthood, I'm terrified I'm going to become my mother. Being stranded like this isn't exactly helping. This is kinda the exact opposite of 'stable.' So while I'm okay now, and have no bipolar symptoms…if we end up being stuck on this island for a long time, I don't know what I'll be like."

He finished his story with his eyes on the fire, silently watching the fish we were doomed to eat forever.

"Jake…" My voice was soft, full of sympathy.

"Don't," He said fiercely as his eyes met mine. "Don't feel sorry for me. It's my problem, not yours…I'm sorry I ever told you…"

He moved to get up, but I quickly reached my arm out and pulled him back into the sand.

"Do you want to know what you'll be like?" I asked him, my voice full of certainty. "Exactly the way you are now. Why? Because you've got me, and I won't let you change. And if you do develop the disorder, I'll be what your dad is for your mom. I promise I'll keep you from doing anything you'll regret. I'll stick with you, Jake, and I'll help you deal, and that's a promise."

Surprised, he looked up at me.

"But, why? A week ago you hated my guts. Why would you commit yourself to a promise like that?"

It was my turn to be embarrassed. "I'm beginning to think I never hated you. I was just too stupid to accept what my heart was telling me…I care about you, Jake, so much that it kinda scares me. A week ago, I thought I hated you, but I'm beginning to realize this burning passion that keeps growing inside my heart is the exact opposite."

I trailed off, unsure of whether it would be a good idea to say my next line of thought. I decided to just screw it-if I died on this island, I wanted Jake to know how much he meant to me.

"Do you believe in love at first sight?" I softly asked him, my voice wavering with my nerves.

Jakes eyes shot to mine. Slowly, he nodded his head 'yes.'

"Well, so do I. I think the jolt of emotion I felt when we first made eye contact all those months ago, wasn't hate like I originally thought, but love.

"Jake Ryan…I think I'm in love with you." My voice was barely a whisper and Jake had to lean forward to hear what I was saying. "I either already am, or I will be soon. The strength of what I feel for you scares me, but it excites me at the same time. I can see myself growing old with you, and that's why I can promise that I'll be here for you for as long as you'll let me."

"Do you really mean that?"

There was that beautiful smile again.

I nodded. "I do."

"God, Miley…You have no idea what you do to me, do you?"

I looked at him, confused.

Jake chuckled before explaining. "You basically just made my year…no, my life. You don't know how happy you just made me."

He leaned forward, slamming his lips against mine. I fell back into the sand, unprepared for the force Jake used to attack my lips. He didn't reach out to pull me up. Instead, he crawled over to me in the sand, settling himself on top of me and reattaching his lips to mine with such passion I didn't know if I wanted to jump for joy or cry in happiness.

When he began to pull away, I reached out, trying to pull him back to me.

"Slow down, Miles. I've got something I want to say, too." The smile was clear in his voice.

My eyes fluttered open, meeting his. He leaned back down, softly brushing his lips against mine in a chaste kiss before mumbling, his lips still against mine, "I'm in love with you, too. I have been for the past sixth months. You just made one of my dreams come true…"

And he slammed his lips against mine. This time, I pushed him away.

"Wait, what are your other dreams?"

He laughed loudly.

"Those are my secrets for now. They might scare you off."

"If you say so…" I mumbled, pulling him back down to me.

I was too interested in the feeling on him pressed against me to argue.

The fish lay burning in the fire, completely forgotten as Jake and I willingly explored the effects of our recent admissions.

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**For the record, I didn't make tons of grammar mistakes in this chapter when I failed to put an ending quotation on some of the dialogue. When a new paragraph starts in dialogue, but it's the same person still talking, you don't close the previous quotation so the reader knows the same person is talking...You only close the quotations when the speaker changes. I'm pretty sure thats the way it is at least. If it really bugs you, go look in a real book and find out...then let me know so I don't look stupid again! **

**Alright, I'm done making up excuses for my horrible writing. Review, yeah?**


	18. Chapter 17

**Let me start by apologizing profusely to my fantasic betas, who I completely skipped in my desire to get this posted faster. I simply wanted to keep my 'Sunday night' update promise, and to do that, I had to post directly after finishing the chapter. Don't worry, I still very much appreciate you guys and everything you do and you will get to do your job for the next chapter, okay? Don't hate me? **

**IMPORTANT: One quick thing everyone should read before they read the chapter itself. This particular chapter might be bordering on being 'Mature,' but it really depends on your interpretation of the word. While I think it might be a bit much for anyone under the age of eleven, I tried my hardest to make everything T-rated. It's nothing graphic really, just a few choice words that imply a few things. So, its up to you to choose to read the chapter or not, but if you choose not to, at least scroll down and read that last paragraph. That part is important. **

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One week turned into two weeks, and two weeks turned into a month and before long, four months had passed with us still stuck on the island. It was a depressing thought that no one had found us yet, but we'd settled into a routine and seemed to be doing just fine on our own. 

Jake had long ago figured out how to make a spear and we'd graduated from the tiny fish we'd once eaten for dinner every night, to larger fish with greater amounts of muscle, meaning our nightly intake of food was much larger. On top of that, he sometimes managed to use his spear to catch one of the smaller animals we often found running through the forest. We weren't quite sure what it was we were eating those nights, but they were always a pleasant break from the monotonous dinner we usually had.

I had become a regular little homemaker it seemed. I'd figured out that the seashells we'd originally used to dig the trenches for our hut also made great makeshift pots, and every morning we would boil water from the stream in them over the fire for us to drink during the day. I'd also managed to sharpen one of the seashells enough to make it into a knife, and we used that to cut the fish every night so we no longer had to rip at with our teeth as we had been forced to do that first week on the island, something I was very grateful for. I'd ended up also sharpening a seashell for Jake and I to use as a crude razor -I was very grateful to no longer have hairy legs and Jake was happy to have his growing beard removed.

Our hut had also undergone significant changes. While before the door had been made of grass, Jake had fashioned a real door out of the fallen tree limbs we'd found in the days after the storm. It originally didn't do much to keep the cold air out at night, but when we'd threaded large palm leaves through the open spaces, it did its job just as a real door would. We'd enlarged the hut once again, making it big enough to separate into two small rooms. One we used to store all of our belongings, like the suitcase we'd found many nights before. Our sleeping area was separated by a hanging wall of leaves and we'd used several different pieces of scrap metal from the wreckage to arrange the roof so it had a small hole in it, meaning we could start a small fire at nights to keep ourselves warm while we slept without being suffocated by the smoke.

The routine was simple. Ever morning we when we woke up, Jake would venture out of the hut to pick some of the small berries we'd discovered in our third week on the island. While he was doing that, I would make our bed, which had progressed from a blanket in the sand, to a shallow pit in the sand. The pit had logs laying in it to make it sturdy and we'd managed to form somewhat of a mattress out of palm leaves mixed with long strands of grass. While it wasn't exactly comfortable, it was better than waking up with sand stuck in every crevice of our body every morning.

After the bed was made, I would head outside to start the fire and begin boiling the water while I waited for Jake to come back from his berry-picking journey. Making fires was one of the few things he'd managed to teach me during the passing months, along with how to spear-catch fish. He'd originally told me his lessons were a way to pass the time, but I knew he was trying to protect me, to make sure I would be able to survive if anything ever happened to him.

After he'd return we'd settle ourselves along the shoreline and eat the berries for breakfast. Coconut milk was our beverage during the mornings, and sometimes we ate the fruit along the inside of the coconut as well. That was where we currently were sitting, enjoying our berries as the day began.

"Watcha thinking about?" I heard Jake ask me, pulling me from my silent thoughts.

A laugh escaped my mouth as I responded, "I was just thinking about how we've been acting like an old married couple lately. It's funny, because we have this routine and every day we do the same things at the same times. We're so old-fashioned."

Jake smiled at me.

"Is that a bad thing?"

Shaking my head, I took a sip of coconut milk before turning to him.

"Not at all," I said, "It just amuses me."

An evil smirk made its way across his face as he leaned towards me, mumbling, "I know something else that amuses you…" before brushing his lips against mine.

I guess I should mention that we had grown VERY close over the weeks. Our relationship hadn't progressed to sex, but it might as well have. I guess you could say we were 'rounding third base,' whatever that meant. I never learned the bases during middle school, just that reaching home meant having sex.

Jake was never bashful when it came to taking from me what he wanted, whether it was a passionate kiss, a romantic cuddle session in front of the fire, or a sexy swim in the stream in nothing but our underwear. Not that I minded, of course. In fact, I loved it. The way he looked at me sometimes was just so…downright toe-tingling. The passion I'd grown accustomed to seeing in his eyes made my entire body quiver in anticipation for the night we finally took our relationship to the next level…because it was going to be a good one, I knew for sure.

"Mmm…You're right. That definitely does amuse me…" I mumbled against his lips.

A proud smile made its way across his face as he pulled away. I turned my gaze back to the never-ending horizon of the ocean, bringing the last of the berries to my mouth. Quickly chewing, I swallowed before moving to stand up.

"I think I'm gunna go rinse off in the stream, okay?" I asked, looking down at Jake, who was taking a sip of coconut milk.

He nodded his head, and I turned to head to the hut to grab some new clothes. Every week I rinsed the clothes we weren't wearing in the stream, trying to at least keep them somewhat clean before laying them out on the shore on top of a metal plane scrap to dry.

Pausing, I turned to Jake and reminded him, "And you aren't allowed to come join me, mister!"

A pout spread across his face as he, too, stood up.

"But, imagine how much more fun it would be if I did…" His voice was that of a five year old child begging his mom for what he wanted most.

I laughed. "No, you big dork. I want to actually rinse off, which means naked Miley and no Jake."

He sagged his shoulders in defeat as I turned away again, disappearing into the forest.

--

Miley had just walked off into the forest, leaving me standing on the shore trying to figure out just what the heck I was supposed to do to pass the time. I flopped onto the sand and began to draw pictures in it. They were childish pictures, consisting of everything from a house under a sun with a family standing outside that was typically drawn by kindergarteners, to a big fat heart with Miley's initials and mine inside. I was such a hopeless romantic, I mused, thinking about the endless torture I would hear from Miley if she ever saw my 'girly expression' of our relationship. That girl loved to torture me over pointless things, but I wasn't one to complain. I loved the fun banter that always seemed to stem from it.

When I could think of nothing else to draw, I fell back so I was lying in the sand, closing my eyes and basking in the warm sun. We'd had nothing but good whether since the storm, something I was happy about. I didn't need another storm to cause me to hurt Miley again. She was completely healed, thank goodness and had started walking again within a few days of the end of the storm. That made life on the island much better.

I laid there for about ten minutes, soaking in the sun and thinking about random things, but all of my thoughts led me directly back to Miley, who was currently standing _naked_ in a stream. My face grew hot as I imagined what she looked like, and before long the tell-tale sign of desire made itself known.

I tried to think of other things…a nice cold shower, Oliver wearing nothing but a pair of granny panties and a pink tutu, Miley's dad and his muscular arms that could very easily beat me up, but nothing seemed to be able to turn my desire off. After about two seconds of trying to will my anatomical features to stop acting of their own accord, I decided to say, "Screw it!" and jumped up, heading off towards that stream and the girl I was in desperate want of.

True to her word, she was standing naked under the waterfall, rinsing the water through her hair. Her back was to me, so I decided to opt for the element of surprise. I kind of had to, because if she knew what I was about to do, her modesty would get the best of her and my plan would never work.

I quickly divested myself of my clothes, dropping them next to hers on a rock and slipped into the water as carefully as possible, trying not to alert her to my presence. She remained blissfully unaware as I slipped through the water towards her, and before long, I found myself right behind her. Reaching out, I slipped my arms around her middle, settling them on her stomach as I pulled her against my chest.

"Jake! What did I say?" She huffed at me in indignation, but made no attempt to remove herself from my arms.

I chuckled, a deep, happy sound that made my entire body shake.

"I'm pretty sure you said something along the lines of, 'You better come join me in the stream, Jake!'"

"Ha. Nice try. I said the exact opposite, thank you!"

She was so cute when she was all flustered like that.

"That's a minor detail. Are you protesting me being here now?"

"Yes! Jake! I'm naked!" The idea seemed to have just settled into her mind, because she abruptly crossed her arms over her front, covering her exposed chest.

I leaned my head forward, so my mouth was right next to her ear and whispered, "Have you ever gone skinny dipping, Miley?"

I saw her face flush out of the corner of my eyes, as I rested my chin atop her shoulder.

"No…" she trailed off.

"So…why not try it now?"

She half-heartedly tried to declare it would be inappropriate, but her heart wasn't really in it.

Rolling my eyes, I said from my spot against her shoulder, "It's not like we're about to have sex, Miles. Just some severely frowned upon by 'old-marrieds' fun."

Then, I dropped my voice again, giving it a husky tone before mumbling in her ear, "It's not like I haven't seen you naked already…"

If her face got any redder, it was going to burn off. Internally, I was cracking up. Freaking her out like this was so much fun.

"Yeah, but that was at nighttime…You know, when it's dark outside and you can't really see me? There's a difference." She tried to argue, but she really wasn't doing a very good job at it.

"Are you afraid of me fully seeing you, Miley?"

She nodded, her hair tickling my chest as it moved against me with the motion of her head.

"Are you serious?" I pulled her tightly against me, wrapping my arms harder around her stomach as my hands began to gently massage the skin beneath them.

"You've got nothing to hide from me, babe. I'm not going to sit here and scrutinize you. Besides, I know you're perfect, so you've got nothing to worry about."

She nodded slowly, before pulling herself out of my arms and turning to face me, her arms still across her chest. I knew she was a little timid about the whole situation, so I stepped up to her, reaching out and grabbing one of her hands and slowly pulling it away from her. As I did that, I wrapped my other arm around her middle, resting it low on her back and leaned forward to brush my lips against hers.

I smiled as she reacted just as I knew she would, eagerly responding to my lips against hers. I knew her so well; it made me wonder how I learned that much about her in such a short amount of time.

Soon, we were lost in the feel of each other and Miley's shyness disappeared as she pulled her other hand away from her chest to wrap it around my neck. In the process, she pushed her front against my chest and I almost stopped breathing it felt so good. A low moan escaped from my mouth and Miley pulled back, worry on her face. I laughed, mumbling, "Don't worry, that's a good sign…" as my eyes closed and I drew her lips to mine again.

We did nothing more than innocently make out in the stream that day. She had been voicing her curiosity about the act of making love, and I knew she was close to giving in, but then was not the time.

Of course, I would have answered her curiosities that day if I had known then what was about to happen, even if it was just for the sake of knowing I'd experienced such an intimate connection with the woman I loved. Instead, two days later we found ourselves in a horrifying situation, one I was afraid we weren't going to survive.

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**I want to apologize right now, but I basically have to drop off the face of the earth for the next two weeks while I take on the monstronsity known as 'Finals Week,' (let's just say, me and the library are going to become good friends) so you probably won't see an update from me until after the 19th. If I do update anything, it'll be 'What I Didn't Say' because there's only one chapter left on that story. **

**But let me know what you think about this chapter, please?**


	19. Chapter 18

**I quickly wanted to give a huge thank you to EVERONE that had reviewed so far. You guys always make my day, especially reviews that point out like specific things in the chapter that went well or didn't go well. Reviews give me tons of feedback so I can figure out what will make the next chapter work best! **

**Btw, this would be the 'two days later.' I didn't really make that clear in the story, but I promise it is. **

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"What's going to happen between us when we get off this island?"

Miley's soft question pulled me from the silent thoughts I had been entertaining.

We were currently lying in front of the fire, Miley's back against my stomach, one of my arms under her head, the other wrapped around her waist, pulling her firmly against me. We were having our 'night time cuddle session' as I had taken to calling it. Of course, Miley didn't know I had a special term for my favorite part of the day because it made me sound like a wimp, but I was beginning to think I was.

Here I was, a hormonal man of eighteen years old, and my favorite thing to do with the girl I loved was simply lie with her, feeling her against me. It wasn't like I didn't enjoy the activities that sometimes followed when we pulled ourselves from the warmth of the fire and settled into our makeshift bed. I just liked this more-it was nice and simple, it didn't require tons of effort and most of all, it was comfortable. I loved more than anything the feel of her butt pressed against my pelvis, her hand laying gently on top of mine where it rested in front of her, holding me to her. I loved burying my face in her brunette hair, feeling it tickle my cheeks.

To me, moments like this seemed more intimate than other moments. We could lie here, completely trusting and just bask in the feel of one another and let our worries drift away.

But tonight, Miley seemed to have other plans.

"What do you mean?" I asked her for clarification.

She sighed softly, but asked, "When we get off this island, are we still going to be together? Or are we gunna go our separate ways?"

She was worried about us not being together anymore? I chuckled quietly, and Miley felt it.

"Don't laugh at me!" She yelled, upset.

Immediately I stopped, but it was hard to remove the grin from my face.

"Miles, you honestly think I would let you get away from me?" I asked her gently, hoping to show her my point of view.

She shrugged against me. "I don't know…What if you find someone prettier than me, while you're off making new movies? Or what if you get bored of me? Or you just 'settled' for me because I'm the only girl out here?"

Her voice sounded strained, and I realized she was genuinely afraid that I was going to leave her for some other girl.

"You're insane."

"I am not!" She huffed in indignation.

"But you are," I argued. "Miley, you have got to be utterly, completely insane if you honestly think I'd leave you for some other girl. I love you, Miles, you know that. I've loved you for forever now, remember?"

"I know, it's just…" she mumbled.

"It's just nothing," I cut her off. "You're my girl, Miley. You're always going to be my girl, no matter what happens to us in the future. I love you too much to let you get away from me…"

She seemed satisfied with my response, and fell silent for a few minutes.

"I think I'm going to kill Hannah Montana."

Her spoken thought made my jaw drop. "You're going to kill Hannah Montana? Miles, you are Hannah. Killing Hannah would mean killing yourself, you know that right?"

It was her turn to laugh. "Not literally, dummy."

"Then please explain, 'cause you've got me completely confused."

She attempted to remove herself from her spot in front of me, probably to turn around and face me, but I didn't let her. She didn't seem to mind, and instead snuggled further into my embrace.

"Well, when we get back, people are going to know who I am for two reasons: I survived the plane crash and when they find us, it'll make headlines, and I'll be famous by association, like 'Miley Stewart, aka, Jake Ryan's Girlfriend.'

"But if people are going to know who Miley is, I want them to know me because of something I do that's special. I'm not trying to sound offensive, because I love being Jake Ryan's girlfriend, but that's not all I want to be."

She took a few minutes to decide where she was going to go next in her explanation, and I took the brief silence to think about what she was saying. She had a point. I didn't want her to be famous just because she was dating me; that would make her seem like some hopeless fan whose wish happened to come true. If Miley was going to be famous, I could see why she'd want it to be for her talent, not because of who she was with.

"Everyone knows Hannah Montana was on that plane with you," she began, pulling me from my thoughts, "But I obviously lost my wig during the wreck. So when they find us, they're going to find Miley and Jake, not Hannah and Jake.

"What if we just tell them Hannah didn't survive? Then I could make my own songs, and create my own music, as Miley. I could sing the songs I want to sing, not the bouncy, party songs Hannah is required to sing by contract. And I'd be known for my music, not by association. It'd be just like before, except I'll have brown hair when I perform, and I know people will love my songs 'cause they already love Hannah's songs, and we're the same person."

My girl had a good idea going, I had to admit, but it seemed kind of melodramatic.

"Are you sure you want that, Miles? People are going to want to see a funeral ceremony for Hannah Montana. Are you going to be able to stand by and watch as people mourn the death of someone that is still very much alive? Are you going to be able to sit in the church with me at the service and stare at your smiling picture sitting atop an empty casket? Won't that creep you out?" I asked her, voicing my concerns.

She shrugged gently. "I don't know. It was just a thought. I could always just reveal to them that I am Hannah Montana, but then I'll be flooded with all those questions…"

I smiled slightly. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather answer a ton of questions than mourn the death of myself. There's just something so wrong about the possibility of doing that."

She giggled. "Yeah, it does sound kind of messed up doesn't it?"

"It does," I confirmed, nodding my head.

Then, before she knew what had happened, I pulled myself from her arms, running towards the crashing waves of the ocean. Just as I was about to reach the water, I turned to see her sitting up, her jaw dropped in indignation.

"Jake Ryan! I can't believe you just did that!" she yelled at me, standing up.

I shrugged my shoulders innocently, holding my hands up in a 'What did I do?' gesture. But clearly, I had done something, and she took off running towards me. I briefly contemplated running into the water, but I figured it would be more fun to let her think she was going to catch me first. When she was seconds from reaching me, I whirled around, rushing into the surprisingly warm nighttime water.

She looked like she was about to follow me, but stopped briefly at the shoreline. "Do you know how hard my head hit the sand when you yanked your arm out from underneath me?"

"I'm sorry, babe," I told her in an apologetic voice, but the smirk was still clear on my face, "But the water was calling to me-I had to run into it before I made it unhappy."

She rolled her eyes. "That's such a bunch of BS."

"Yeah, it might be, but the look on your face was priceless," I told her, before turning and swimming deeper into the water.

I resurfaced a few seconds later to find that Miley had waded a few feet into the water, bringing her a bit closer to me. From the light of the moon I could see her standing with a shocked expression on her face, her hand slightly covering her dropped jaw.

Curious, I looked around, trying to find what had surprised her so much, but I couldn't see anything.

"Miles, what's wrong?" I asked her, slightly worried.

"Jake, look down at the water and move one of your hands in it," she instructed.

Confused, I did as she said, only to gasp in surprise as well. When I had moved my hand, millions of tiny light dots had appeared in the water, following its motion. I did it again, and the light appeared again. I did a full turn in the water, and the light exploded around me, a soft blue-green color.

Alarmed, I looked back up at Miley and cautiously asked, "Should I be afraid?"

She smiled widely, and shook her head 'no' before running deeper into the water to meet me. When she reached my spot in the water, she laughed loudly, swinging her arms about, marveling in the blue light her actions created, clearly not afraid of it.

"Miley, what's causing this?" I asked her, still a little worried.

A happy giggle escaped her mouth, as she responded, "Plankton!"

"What?" I was thoroughly confused.

"I learned about this in biology last year. Some organisms have the ability to produce light, like fireflies. It's called bioluminescence, and there's a species of plankton in the ocean that is particularly known for being one of these organisms," she told me with a wide smile, "They're really important to ocean eco-systems sometimes. I remember learning about a bay in Puerto Rico that is full of these tiny organisms, and without them all the other organisms in the bay wouldn't be able to survive!"

"So all this light is being created by animals so small we can't even see them?"

She nodded. "That's what makes it amazing. Look at how much light is being produced! There must be millions of tiny plankton surrounding us right now!"

She fell back into the water, and her entire body was briefly surrounded by a light outline. The way the blue light lit up her skin was radiant, and I found myself openly staring at her.

"Isn't it beautiful?" She asked softly, rising into a standing position again.

"It really is…"

But I wasn't talking about the light we were creating with our movements. I was talking about the amazing girl in front of me who had remembered a tiny detail from a class she had taken a year earlier as she frolicked about in the water.

I couldn't help myself as I reached my hand out for hers, pulling her to me. Confused, she asked, "What's wrong?" but I shook my head.

"Absolutely nothing," I said before softly brushing my lips against hers. When I pulled back, I softly told her, "You look amazing with the water lighting up around you like that. It's…effulgent."

She laughed.

"Effulgent? What the heck does that mean?"

I dropped my head, a blush making its way across me cheeks. "It's a poetry word. It means 'radiant.'"

Her laughter immediately stopped. "How did you know about it?"

"When I was little, on her good days, my mom would read me poetry. She always told me she didn't want me to grow up and be a 'brute of a man.' Those were her exact words. She wanted me to be romantic and thoughtful. I guess she thought poetry would accomplish that," I explained, my cheeks flushing a deeper red.

"Aw, that's so cute…" she said, her voice a high pitched squeal.

I laughed slightly, before leaning forward to kiss her again. The kiss turned passionate, and we began moving about in the water, trying desperately to get closer to each other. I took a step, then another, pulling myself tight against her body, but when I went to put my foot back on the sandy ocean floor it was met by a sharp pinch.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, abruptly pulling away from Miley.

Her eyes fluttered open as she was pulled from her passionate haze, and she softly asked, "What's wrong?"

"Something bit me or something. It hurt," I complained as I horribly attempted to view my foot through the water.

Watching me hop around on one foot while trying to bring the other up to my face for close inspection must have been an amusing sight, because Miley exploded with laughter.

I looked at her with furrowed brows. "Don't laugh at me, babe. It really hurt."

She stopped laughing, but a small smile was still evident on her face.

"Aw…Let me see it, Jake," she demanded, holding her hand out for me to place my foot in it.

I did so, and she gasped softly.

"Wow, that's a pretty big cut. You must have stepped on something sharp. Do you want to go back to shore and I'll see if there are any band-aids left in the first aid kit?" She asked from her spot at my foot.

I shook my head no. The pain was already starting to lessen, and the salt water would be good for the wound. "Let's just get back to what we were doing…"

But she shook her head no as well. "I'm tired. Let's go to bed."

I wasn't exactly ready for bed, but she didn't wait for an answer. Instead, she swam off towards the shore, not turning around to see if I was following until she was only knee-deep in the water.

"Jake, why aren't you coming with me?" she called out to me.

A mischievous grin made its way across my face, but I hid it.

"I can't move! It hurts too much!" I called out to her, masking my voice to sound like I was in serious pain.

Unfortunately it didn't work. Rolling her eyes, yelled, "Nice try, Ryan. Now, get your ass out of the water so we can 'go to bed.'"

She said the last three words with so much sexual innuendo I almost gave up my ploy to get her back into the water. Almost, but not quite.

"I'm not lying, babe. I need your help! Please, Miley, come save me!" I dramatically collapsed into the water, my arms and legs spread out.

I heard her laughter and the splashing of water as she began to make her way back out to me, but it stopped a few seconds later.

"Jake!" she yelled, but I ignored her. Maybe if she really thought I was in trouble, she'd come and get me.

"Jake!" she called again this time louder, "Jake, don't move!"

I chuckled. Of course I wasn't going to move-I wanted her to come move me.

In my excitement, I didn't realize her voice had been overtaken with fear. I was content to lie there, waiting for my beautiful princess to come save me. I didn't think to worry about the blood that was freely leaking into the water from my foot, or the animals it could be attracting.

"Jake! LOOK OUT!"

Look out? What was she talking about?

I let my feet sink to the bottom, pulling me into a standing position, my eyes settling on Miley. What I saw shocked me. Her eyes were wide, full of terror. Tear streaks reflected the light of the moon, illuminating her watery eyes.

"Miley, what's going on?" I called out my question to her.

She raised her arm and pointed to my left. Confused, I went to turn my head to figure out what had gotten her so worked up, but I never got the chance to.

Before I could turn, mind-splitting pain exploded through my body, originating from my lower leg. It was like someone had stabbed a million sharp knives into my calf. The pain was everywhere, strongest about half way down my leg. I gasped at the intensity of the feeling, my eyes immediately watering.

I heard Miley yell, "Nooooo!" as I finally turned to my left to see a large set of razor sharp teeth coming towards me.

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**Be kind, review:D **


	20. Chapter 19

**Hey guys! Before you start reading, I should mention, this chapter might be a bit dramatic and gory. It's nothing too bad, but it's not all sunshine and roses-far from that actually. So, you've been warned. :D **

**Also, you should all thank SVUlover very much! When I asked her for her opinion on a plot line, in true beta-fashion, she told me she liked the plot that is going to take the longest to complete best. So, because of her, ten chapters probably just got added to this story. Yay for you! Actually, yay for me, too, because I'm pretty excited about this plot line. It's going to be great! **

**Alright, enough of me. Go ahead, read away. I know you're dying to know what happened! **

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"Nooooo!" I exclaimed with all my heart as I saw the shark dip under the water near Jake's left side. The anguished look that appeared on Jake's face told me all I needed to know-the shark had attacked.

I was frozen in my spot knee-deep in the water, unable to move. Shock was setting in. Could this really be happening? Was there really a _shark_ trying to make Jake its dinner as I stood rooted to my spot, watching helplessly?

It was like watching a movie unfold in front of me, made magnificent by the light that kept exploding around the movements of Jake and the shark. I knew I needed to take action, but I couldn't. I couldn't will myself to move. The fear that had exploded in me when I saw the dorsal fin of the shark reflected in the moonlight was inhibiting my motor functions. I could barely breathe.

I stood, hopeless, as I watched Jake's face scrunch in pain and anger. The scene in front of me turned dramatic: Jake swung out with his right hand, slamming it into the fin of the shark that was circling him, looking for the next best place to attack. The shark turned, briefly swimming in the opposite direction, back into the open ocean, and Jake dove into the water trying pitifully to make it back to the shore. But the shark had other plans-its path turned, and I closed my eyes fearfully as the shark made a beeline for Jake's flailing body. The light that I had previously found mystifying before turned into an eerie trail of doom in the shark's wake.

After four months of long, hard suffering and survival, was it really going to come down to this for Jake? Was all his effort about to be foiled by a hungry shark?

Was he about to die?

My eyes snapped open. No, he wasn't going to die, because I wasn't going to let it happen.

Without a second thought about the consequences of my actions, I dove into the water, swimming as fast as I could towards Jake. Secretly, I cursed the night sky. The bioluminescent plankton blinded me when I tried to open my eyes underwater, and without the sunlight, it was almost impossible for me to see where I was going. I had to resurface every few seconds to see how far away I was.

When I finally reached Jake, I kicked out with a foot and connected with what I hoped was the snout of the shark. I kicked again and again and again. I swung my legs through the water as fast as I could, hoping desperately that I was somehow injuring the shark. I felt teeth scrape against my foot and cried out in fear, but I never felt the sharp pain of a tooth sinking into my skin. I kicked again, and I felt my foot sink into the tough skin of the shark-I had hit its gills.

Finally, the shark seemed to decide this meal was more trouble than it was worth and it took off again towards the open ocean. I waited a few minutes, making sure it wasn't going to come back, before I turned to Jake.

Even in the dark night I could tell his skin was pale. His eyes were falling shut, and his head kept lolling back, like a toddler on the verge of falling asleep in their high chair. He was barely able to stand. His back was hunched and his breathing was ragged.

"Jake?!" I said loudly, trying to catch his attention as I made my way to him in the water. There was blood everywhere, diffusing itself through the gallons and gallons of water. It was so thick I couldn't see through the normally clear water to assess the damage to his leg.

His eyes went out of focus, and I saw him scrunch his eyebrows in frustration as he tried to bring them back into focus.

"Miley?"

His voice was so soft it made me whimper.

"Yeah, Jake, it's me," I confirmed, reaching out to pull his arm over my shoulder.

I began to pull him hurriedly through the water, trying to get us back to shore as quickly as possible, but the process was made more difficult because Jake was slowly losing consciousness, turning into dead weight.

"Come on, Jake, don't fall asleep on me!" I yelled, hoping my loud voice would startle him into alertness.

"Miley, it hurts so much…" His voice was getting softer.

"I know it does! But you gotta stay awake with me! Don't let the pain get to you. Be strong, for me!"

That seemed to knock some sense into him, because his weight lessened. I could sense he was trying to hop on his good foot, and the effort was greatly speeding the process. His hop became confident, and I heard him mumbling under his breath. It took a few minutes, but I finally realized he was whispering, "For Miley…for my girl…for my love…for Miley..." continuously, and a small tear leaked out of my eye-even when he was on the brink of possible death, he was worried about making me proud. How had I ever been able to do anything but hopelessly love such a passionate man? I was a fool to not realize who Jake was all the months ago.

"That's right, Jake," I began, hoping I would further increase his confidence and will to help, "I am your girl. I always will be, no matter what happens. I love you, Jake. You're the reason I'm still alive. It's all because of you. It's all about you, and me, and our love. But now you gotta stay awake for me. It's your turn to live."

His mumbling got louder and his hop increased in speed, almost faster than I was able to walk. A few minutes later we reached the shore, and I gasped as we walked out of the water and I was finally able to see his leg. It was freely bleeding-long, thin trails of blood dreadfully made their way down his leg, pooling in a puddle at his foot.

Carefully, I removed his arm from around my shoulder, and helped him sit in the sand at the shoreline, before kneeling over his calf and surveying the damage. Luckily, there was no chunk of flesh missing. It seemed the shark had only sunk his teeth into Jake's leg, trying to figure out whether the food source the scent of blood had led him towards was a good one.

Internally I sighed. This was a good sign, to say the least. Hopefully it meant there wasn't a lot of internal damage, but I had to find out. Though I knew what I was about to do was going to hurt Jake terribly, it had to be done, and I secretly hoped it would startle him into full alertness.

Bracing myself for the kick I knew I was about to receive from the pain I was about to cause, I settled myself at the bottom of Jake's leg, situating his foot between my knees, squeezing it tight to try to prevent him from moving. Then, I took my right hand, and starting at his knee, I ran the tips of my fingers straight down the front of his leg, pressing hard to feel for any abnormalities that could mean a broken bone. Jake jerked at the pain I inflicted with my hand, but I had managed to secure his leg enough to prevent him from moving it too much.

I felt only one anomaly, right in the center of the bite, but I couldn't be sure if it meant broken bone. So I did the only thing I knew of to do in order to find out. Cringing, I placed my pointer finger on the tip of the cut right above the abnormality, before looking intently into Jake's eyes.

He seemed to have woken up more at the pressure I'd just placed along his leg, because his eyes were wide. He was shaking his head fearfully, and I knew that he knew what I was about to do.

"I'm sorry, Jake, I have to know for sure," I whispered, because I truly felt bad, "Just focus on me, okay? Don't look down."

He nodded, and locked his eyes on mine, taking a deep breath. I did the same, then plunged my finger into the cut, shoving it in until I reached the end, feeling for bone.

If we had had any doubt about being alone on the island before, we would have found out just then. The scream of agony Jake released was so loud, it could have been heard for miles had there been anyone to hear it, and someone surely would have come running. The tears that had only been trailing down his face before came in earnest, fat, wet globs falling down his cheek.

When I reached the end of the cut but found no hard bone, I sighed in relief. The bite hadn't reached the bone, which meant it hadn't broken it. Though Jake probably wasn't too concerned with it at the moment because of the pain he was in, the conclusion made me ecstatic-no broken bone meant it would be much easier for him to heal and his chances of survival were much higher.

I quickly pulled my finger out, not bothering to rinse it off in the water as I slammed both of my hands over the gash in an effort to prevent the increased blood flow I knew I had just created.

But my little hands weren't enough-Jake was losing blood and he was losing it fast.

Reaching up, I yanked my tank top off, not bothering to act modest about being only bra-clad in front of Jake. We'd gone skinny dipping two days prior and done many intimate things many times before that; if he didn't know what my chest looked like by now, there was something wrong with him. I tied my tank top around his upper leg, hoping it would act as a tourniquet to help stem the blood flow. Then, I pulled his hands from where they'd been gripping his leg and pressed them against the cuts.

"Don't move your hands. I need you to apply as much pressure as you can, even though I know it hurts," I instructed him.

He nodded his eyes still wide with fear. I jumped up, planted my lips against his forehead, whispered, "I love you and I'll be right back," and took off running towards the hut and the first aid kit that was waiting inside it.

Once I was there, I grabbed the first aid kit, the sewing kit and a couple of tee shirts, then turned to Jake, ready to run back to him, but a scream escaped my lips. He was no longer sitting up, applying pressure to his wounds. He had passed out and had fallen back to lie flat in the sand.

"Nooo!" I yelled for the second time that night, and broke into a run, moving towards him as fast as I could. I'd heard horror stories. I'd watched the trauma shows on the Discovery Channel. They all said one thing-if someone passed out from loss of blood, chances were they weren't going to wake up.

I frantically dropped to my knees by his shoulder, reaching out to roughly shake him.

"Jake, wake up. Please, you've got to wake up!" I cried, hoping for a response, but there was nothing.

Reaching out, I pressed the first two fingers of my right hand against his neck, just under his ear like I'd been taught to do in the babysitting course my dad had forced me to take so many years before, feeling for a pulse. Agonizing seconds passed as I pressed firmly against his neck, praying for the familiar thump of blood rushing through his veins. After a mere second that felt like an entire life time, I felt it. Then I felt another thump, then another. They were faint, barely noticeable, but they were regular and that was all that mattered.

I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief-he was still alive. But I knew, deep down, that just because he was alive didn't mean he was going to be okay. I was deathly afraid that he was going to slip into a coma, but there was nothing I could do other than try to stop the blood flow, so I crawled to his leg, preparing myself to attempt to sew a human being's skin back together.

I quickly ran just deep enough into the ocean to get one of the tee shirts wet to use to clean to wounds, then ran back to Jake.

I jumped right into the process, trying to be as efficient as possible. First, I used the wet tee shirt to try to clean the blood from the gashes, then stitched them up, all eight of them, one at a time. Next, I rolled Jake over so he was lying on his stomach so I could clean and stitch the four smaller wounds on the back of his leg. It took almost two hours to stitch every single one of them and by the time I was done, my hands were numb from the intricate work.

I spent thirty more minutes soaking the stitches with the wet tee shirt, then holding the dry one over them to help dry them up.

When I was finally satisfied that they were clean enough and the bleeding had completely stopped, I removed my tank top from around his upper leg, putting it back on. Looking up, I realized the sky had lightened considerably, meaning the sunrise wasn't too far off. Had that much time really passed?

I wrapped the dry tee shirt around Jake's whole leg, effectively covering the stitches to prevent them from getting sand in them, and then set about trying to figure out how I was going to get Jake into the hut.

Reaching forward, I shook him gently, trying to wake him, but I had no luck.

Eventually, I decided the only way I was going to get Jake into the hut was going to be to drag him. So I hooked my arms under his and gently pulled him towards the hut. When we finally got there, I settled him into the bed and plopped down next to it, holding his hand firmly in mine, praying that he would wake up.

It was there that the enormity of the whole situation that had just occurred sank in. My mind flashed back to earlier in the night. Scenes from the whole event fluttered through my mind like a slideshow. Tears began to fall down my cheeks as I realized how close I'd come to losing Jake. Before long, I'd broken down into sobs-loud, gut wrenching sobs.

I was overcome with emotions: fear from almost losing Jake, stress over whether his stitches were going to get infected, exhaustion from working so hard to keep him alive, worry that he was never going to wake up, but most of all, an overwhelming sense of love. I knew right then in that moment that Jake was the only one for me, the only guy I would ever fall into the arms of for the rest of my life, and I was ready to commit myself to him.

I don't know how long I sat there beside him, resting my head against him, soaking his bare chest with my tears. But as I drifted into a welcome sleep, I couldn't help but wonder what else we were going to be forced to submit to while trying to survive life on this island.

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**I'm finally done with my finals, so updates should speed up. Especially since I have nothing better to do with my time now. :D **

**Be kind, review? **


	21. Chapter 20

**Hey all! **

**I wanted to quickly say thank you to all those that brought up the similarities of my oneshot and the oneshot written by smileyhpxx. I did read her oneshot, but was in a hurry when I did and never got to mention it to her, but that fact that other people did was immensly gratifying-it showed that you really do like my stories and are willing to defend them. For future reference, I really have no problem with people borrowing my ideas, but _please_ make sure you do something to differentiate my story from yours, like adding your own twist or something. If you want to borrow an idea, shoot me a PM with the story in it or something and I'll tell you if it's too similar to my story for my comfort. Deal?**

**And to smileyhpxx, if you are reading this, no hard feelings? I understand that you just wanted to use the idea and the similarities were an honest mistake. If you want to give the idea another shot, I'll have no problem looking over it first to make sure it stands apart from mine. Just send me a message, okay? **

**Alrighty, back to my story...This one is short, but it's short on purpose, so don't hate me? **

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I was in pain-horrible, horrible pain. It was a pain that began in my lower left leg, spreading throughout my body like poison. It was a pain that hurt so much I could feel my eyes clouding with tears even though they were still closed.

My eyes hurt, my head hurt, my arms hurt. No wait, only one of my arms hurt. The other was numb.

I let out a soft groan in pain as I tried to move the arm that was numb, but I couldn't because there was something lying on top of it.

I slowly opened my eyes, giving them time to focus as I took in my surroundings.

My eyes settled on the roof of whatever I was lying in. I briefly wondered why it was made of metal, but figured there were more important things to worry about, like whatever was making my arm numb.

It took me a few seconds to turn my head to the side to see what was lying on my arm because my neck was throbbing in resistance, like it hadn't been moved for days. Finally, I managed to crane my neck far enough to see what was at my side, and confusion set in. All I could see was a mass of curly brown hair, but the only person I knew with hair of that color and texture was Miley. Why was Miley laying on my arm?

I gave my arm a quick jiggle, hoping it would wake the girl lying against it. That didn't work, so I jostled it again, trying for more movement, but it only resulted in an explosion of pain up my arm and I cried out at the sensation.

The cry of pain seemed to work, because all of a sudden, I was face to face with a severely worn down Miley Stewart. Her eyes were red and puffy, like they would be if someone had been recently crying. I could see the blood vessels in her eyes and her hair was a mess. It looked like the poor girl hadn't had a proper amount of rest in days.

"Jake! You're awake!"

I tried to ask her what she was talking about (of course I was awake, why wouldn't I be?) but my throat was dry and scratchy, like it too hadn't been used for days.

She saw my effort and quickly said, "No, don't talk! Let me get you something to drink first!"

She gave me no chance to attempt another response as she disappeared to the other side of a hanging wall of leaves. She returned seconds later with half a coconut, and said softly, "I'm going to sit behind you so you can sit up against me okay?"

I nodded, bewildered. What the hell was going on? The girl I knew as Miley Stewart would never even think about coming in physical contact with me, let alone be willing to sit behind and help me drink whatever was in that coconut. After all, she hated my guts.

But I knew better than to argue, and a few seconds later I was leaning painfully against Miley's chest as she tilted the coconut to my lips. The feel of cool water running down the back of my throat was more than welcome, and I eagerly drank all of the liquid. After the water was gone, Miley dropped the coconut into the sand next to us, and firmly wrapped her arms around my upper chest in an awkward hug, resting her head on top of mine.

Talking seemed a much more possible feat after that and I softly asked, "Where are we?"

I felt her freeze up behind me.

"You don't know where we are?"

I shook my head no. I felt Miley drop her shoulders, in sorrow I guess, and she removed herself from behind me, helping me gently lay back against the pillow I had woken up on. Beside me, she took my hand in hers, looked me clearly in the eyes and said, "We're stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Jake. We've been here for a little over four months now."

And that was when it all came flooding back to me-waking up on the island, building the hut I assumed I was lying in, the storm, Miley's sprained ankle, our passionate first kiss, lying together under the night sky, skinny dipping in under the waterfall. Memory after memory slammed into my mind, and I closed my eyes tight in frustration.

"You remember."

It wasn't a question. Miley could tell, probably from my face, that I did in fact remember what had happened over the past four months.

"I do," I confirmed.

"Do you remember the attack?"

I paused, trying to remember what she was talking about. A brief memory flashed through my mind of rows and rows of sharp, pointy teeth, but that was it.

"I think I do…" I began, but changed my mind. "No, I don't. I remember seeing a bunch of teeth coming at me, but that's it."

"You were attacked by a shark," she said, drawing her eyes from mine, "Three days ago. We were messing around in the ocean, you stepped on something, and I guess the blood attracted it, because one minute we were playfully arguing about going to bed, and the next…"

She didn't finish her sentence, and when I saw a soft tear fall down her face I decided I didn't want to remember what she was talking about. If it was causing her pain, I didn't want to even consider the pain it would cause me since I was the one that had been attacked.

"Three days?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Three days. You passed out from blood loss, and you never woke up…"

She trailed off, before leaping forward and hurling herself into my arms as best she could with me lying down.

"I was so afraid you were never going to wake up…" she cried as fat tears began to fall against my chest.

I knew I should reach forward and comfort her, but in all honesty I was still a little too shocked to do anything. I wanted to reach out to at least softly rub her back, but any sort of movement was too painful.

So instead, I said loud enough for her to hear in a playfully mad voice, "Miley, you're getting me all wet…"

She looked up, laughing gently, her face red and splotchy from crying and I melted. Even with her eyes swollen from tears and my body humming in pain, I couldn't help but admire her gorgeous features.

She shyly broke away from my intense stare, and asked my chest instead of my face, "Can I kiss you yet?"

I smiled widely as I responded, "I think that would make me feel much better…"

She smiled in return and leaned forward, brushing her lips against mine in a painfully soft gesture. When she pulled away she broke out in tears again.

"You have no idea what it felt like to think I was never going to get to kiss you again," she whispered her voice full of emotion before she attacked my lips again, this time with more fervor. I tried my best to respond, but the pain in my body won out and as she was reaching up to rub her hand through my hair, I broke the kiss.

"I'm sorry, Miles, but it hurts too much…" I was embarrassed, because I wanted nothing more than to lay there and kiss the day away with her, but I just couldn't do it.

But she seemed to understand, because she nodded in agreement, and pulled herself off my chest so she was sitting beside me again.

"Of course it does. I should have known better," she said, anger at herself in her voice.

"Don't do that to your self," I reprimanded her gently, "Don't feel guilty for wanting to kiss me, babe. I wanted to kiss you, too, and if I wasn't in so much pain, we'd be doing more than kissing right now. I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."

She nodded. "I know that feeling, but no more kissing, scout's honor."

She held up her fingers in the classic symbol for her promise, and for the first time in three days, I laughed. It was a soft laugh, because anything more would have hurt too much, but it was a laugh none the less, and it made Miley smile wide.

"I missed your laugh," she told me.

So I laughed again, and her smile grew. I would have laughed again, but it would have hurt too much, so instead I settled for smiling softly at her.

She moved to get up from her spot next to the makeshift bed, but I didn't want her to leave.

"Where are you going?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm going to get more water. You've been unconscious for three days, you need nourishment."

She had a valid point, one I couldn't argue, so I let her leave. While she was on the other side of the leaves, I closed my eyes, resting briefly. She came back a few minutes later with two more coconuts of water and a fillet of fish.

"Here, eat this," she instructed, then moved to sit behind me again.

With her help, I ate the fish and immediately felt much better.

"Can I have more please?" I shyly asked her because I was still incredibly hungry. I guess not eating for three days can do that to someone.

She giggled and removed herself from behind me to grab more food. She returned with a coconut full of the small berries we usually ate for breakfast and three more fillets of fish.

After she was situated behind me, she dropped a berry into my mouth.

"Here ya go, fatty," she giggled at me, but I shrugged my shoulders in response.

"You try going three days without food and see how hungry you are."

She didn't say anything as she dropped another berry into my mouth.

Thirty minutes later all of the food was gone and I was exhausted. I was more than ready to slip into unconsciousness again, in part to escape the pain in my body. The food had helped with the pain, but there was still a lot of it.

I yawned loudly, and Miley seemed to jump to the same page as me because she helped me lay back down and said gently, "Go back to sleep. You need the rest to get better."

I nodded, ready to close my eyes but I quickly snapped them open.

"You aren't going to leave me while I'm sleeping are you?"

She laughed and gently said, "I'll stay here until you fall asleep, but then I gotta go catch more fish 'cause you just ate it all."

That was fine with me, and I motioned for her to lean against me. She happily leaned forward from her seat in the sand next to me, resting her head on my chest like she had when I'd first woken up, leaving the rest of her body sitting beside me.

I smiled at her gently and closed my eyes. I drifted off to sleep in seconds, welcoming the comfort of unconsciousness.

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**Let me know what you think okay? Oh, and there's a poll up on my profile with a pretty big question in it. Go check it out, yeah? **


	22. Chapter 21

**So it took forever and a day, but I finally got it done! **

**No long intro today...I'm exhausted from work. **

**Enjoy! **

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Four weeks had passed since Jake had woken up after the shark attack-four long weeks, and every day had been frightening. My mind had constantly been full of worries. Were Jake's bites going to get infected? What would we do if they did? Would he lose his leg? Was Jake _ever_ going to be able to walk again?

Things were hardest the first week. After Jake first woke up, he had a lot of trouble. He would drift in and out of consciousness, and the scary part was, he didn't seem to know he was doing it. He'd drop into unconsciousness, almost randomly, and when he woke up, it always took him a few minutes to remember we were stranded on an island.

Those times were the hardest for me. Sitting there, hoping he would remember, waiting for the familiar gleam of recognition in his eyes, was almost painful. No matter how much I wanted to jump into his arms the second I saw his eyes open, I'd learned that waiting for him to remember was better in the long run. It seemed to make him less confused when he did remember. But moments like that broke my heart: knowing he needed me, but not being able to comfort him, was far too emotionally distressing to put into words.

But things had gotten better. The process was slow, but in the second week, I'd noticed his unexpected visits to the land of dreams were less frequent and the regularity of him waking up with no memories lessened.

The third week had brought more change. He would slip into unconsciousness only when he wanted to, and he always knew who I was when he woke up. But that was the week the nightmares started.

I'd noticed it in the middle of the night, when his rough jerking had pulled me from a comfortable sleep within his arms. I woke him up the first time, hoping to end his suffering, but he was jittery for the rest of the night. From then on, I would simply lie beside him, murmuring words of comfort into his ears. That had worked much better because he was able to defeat whatever was tormenting him in his subconscious, and put it behind him. In fact, letting him sleep through his entire nightmare was so effective, he never remembered his nightly discomfort. I would often ask him soft questions in the following mornings, wondering what was making it so hard for him to sleep peacefully, but he would always look at me like I'd grown a second head and ask me what I was talking about. So I stopped mentioning it, and eventually, his nightmares subsided as well.

Of course, the hardest part of the last four weeks had been the constant threat of infection. But I had diligently un-wrapped his bandages each morning, cleaning his wounds before rewrapping them, and we'd gotten lucky-no infection ever set in. The wounds themselves had closed three weeks after the attack, but it wasn't until now that Jake had decided he felt confident enough to try walking on his leg.

"Careful now…" I warned Jake as I helped him make his way out of the hut. He had his arm over my shoulder for support as he hopped towards the door, his injured foot bent up to keep it from dragging off the ground. His face was scrunched in concentration and it was absolutely adorable. I had to suppress a giggle as I observed his features, but a small smile made its way to my face.

When we reached the exit to our hut, Jake pulled his arm from my shoulders so I could push the makeshift door open. After that was done, he limped through the door, and then collapsed to the sand in front of it, breathing heavily.

"I didn't know this would be so hard…" he mumbled, closing his eyes in frustration.

I sat behind him and lightly began to massage his shoulders.

"Of course it's going to be hard, Jake," I reassured him. "You haven't put pressure on your lower body in four weeks, and you didn't exactly suffer a light bruise."

He sighed. "We should just stop. My leg probably isn't ready to hold the weight of my body yet…this is a waste of time."

"You're not giving up on me yet, mister," I softly chastised him. "Not after you've already made it this far."

I paused for a minute, trying to figure out something good he could focus on to draw his mind from the frustration of trying to walk.

"Doesn't it feel good to feel the sun on your face after being stuck in that wooden bed for so long?" I asked him, applying pressure to a knot I'd found at the base of his neck.

He dropped his head forward, making it easier for me to knead his neck and said, "Yeah, it really does…"

"So do you really want to go back in there and be stuck in that bed for another week?" I asked him, trying to make my point.

"No, I guess not…" I agreed.

I laughed gently. "Good, because I'm not letting you go back in there. I know you can do it, Jake. You just have to belief in yourself."

"Can your belief be enough for both of us?"

I laughed louder. "No, it can't. I'm too small for that. You have to believe, too."

He nodded and mumbled, "Alright, I believe," before trying to stand up. It took a few minutes, but soon enough Jake was standing again, balancing on his healthy foot.

With his arm around my shoulders, I softly told him, "On the count of three okay?"

He nodded and before I started counting I quickly reminded him, "Don't put all of your pressure on your leg yet. Just set it on the ground first and we'll go from there, okay?"

He nodded again, so I began.

"One…Two…Three," I counted, and I tightened my hand around Jake's for support as he slowly dropped his foot to the ground.

Instantly, he yelped in pain, jerking his foot back up.

"No, Miley, I can't do it," he whimpered, his hand that wasn't across my shoulder holding his injured leg.

I sighed. What if he was right? What if it really was too soon for him to put pressure on his leg? I certainly didn't want him to injure himself further and it would be cruel of me to keep pushing him to do something that was obviously hurting him.

"Maybe you're right," I said aloud, "It must be too soon. Let's get you back into the bed."

I began to turn around so we could go back to the hut, but Jake stopped me.

"No," he said firmly. "I want to do this."

I looked at him, shocked.

"But, Jake, what if you hurt yourself more?" I argued, but he ignored me. Instead, he gripped my hand tight and dropped his foot to the sand again.

I winced as he took in a sharp breath in pain, but if he wanted to find his limit, I was going to support him.

This time, he didn't hurriedly jerk his leg back up, but left it sitting softly in the sand.

"Are you ready to apply pressure?" I asked him, taking in his pained face. His eyes were shut tight, his teeth clenched together. He nodded, the movement jerky and forced.

Slowly he began to transfer weight from his good leg to the injured leg. As he did, small beads of sweat began to form across his forehead in another physical expression of the pain he was forcing his body through.

"Come on, Jake, I know you can do it…" I whispered in encouragement as he shifted to stand on his bad leg.

After what I knew was forty-five long, painful seconds for Jake, he collapsed into the sand again, this time with a pained smile.

"Did you see?!" he asked happily. "I put all of my weight on my leg!"

I smiled wide, proud of him. "I did. You did so well!" I told him, leaning forward to drop a kiss on his forehead. "I'm really proud of you, Jake."

He smiled softly, before reaching up to grab my hand. He pulled gently, and I fell to the sand next to him.

"Thank you so much, Miley," he said softly, reaching forward to brush his lips against mine in a soft kiss. "If you hadn't acted as fast as you did when I got attacked, I probably wouldn't have made it."

It scared me how true that statement was. I don't know what came over me that night, four weeks ago. Usually I was the exact opposite of what I'd been that night-I froze under pressure and if Jake balancing between life and death isn't pressure, I don't know what is. But that night had been different. Something inside me had just pushed me into action, guiding me in all the right ways, and because of it the man I was in love with was still with me.

Maybe that was it-love. Love had directed me that night, showing me what I needed to do to keep Jake alive. Or maybe it was fear-the idea of being left alone on an island in the middle of nowhere that had provoked me to act. It certainly wasn't bravery. I was anything but brave, and that was not what had pushed me into action that night.

"What wasn't bravery?" I heard Jake asked.

Confused, I looked up at him.

"Huh?"

He laughed gently. "You just said something about it 'not being bravery.' What wasn't bravery?"

I blushed, realizing I had voiced my thoughts.

"I was trying to figure out what had made me act so fast that night," I explained, "And I've decided, bravery wasn't it, because I'm not brave."

Jake's jaw dropped.

"Not brave? Are you crazy?" he asked, his voice full of disbelief.

"No?"

"Miley, what you did that night was many things, brave definitely among them. You acted on instinct, not knowing if you were really doing to right thing. You took a chance for my sake, unaware of the consequences. If that's not brave, I don't know what is." His voice was full of compassion and resolve, and while I had a different opinion, I knew it wasn't the time for me to argue.

"Okay, you're right," I agreed, leaning my head to rest against his shoulder.

"Darn right I am," he nodded in agreement.

I laughed. "And you're handsome."

"Darn right I am."

"And you're sexy and strong and passionate…" I pointed out.

"Darn right I am!" His voice was full of bravado.

I laughed harder as I said, "And you're completely full of yourself!"

"Darn right I-" he abruptly cut off his sentence, realizing what I'd said, "Hey, that's not fair!"

Loud laughter escaped my mouth as I shrugged innocently at his indignant face. "Truth hurts, baby," I whispered as I leaned forward to push him back so he was lying in the sand. I crawled over him, settling myself on top of his strong body as I dipped my head to his neck, softly planting kisses against it.

"It's been far too long since we've done anything exciting, Jake," I whispered into his ear when I reached it.

I smiled when I felt his chest rise with his increased breathing.

"Yeah…" he managed to say, "Coming within inches of death tends to ruin the mood for awhile…"

I pressed my lower abdomen against his, feeling his arousal against me. "But you seem to be very much alive now…" I said softly, my voice deep and sultry.

"Uh…" Jake trailed off, unsure of how to respond to my statement.

"What do you say we get reacquainted with each other?" I suggested.

Jake pulled my face from the crook of his neck, where I'd been focusing my attention, so he could look me deep in the eyes.

"Are you crying?" he asked softly.

I pulled my hand from where it had been gripping his arm, brushing my fingers against my cheeks. My eyes widened in surprise when I felt their wetness.

"I guess I am…"

Jake gently pushed me off of him so we were both sitting up again. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," I told him honestly. I looked down at the sand, drawing patterns into it with my fingers as I thought about what was making me upset.

"I guess…" I began, unsure of how to explain everything I was feeling, "I guess I'm just overwhelmed. When you didn't wake up for three days after the attack…God, Jake, I thought I was never going to see your beautiful smile again, or hear your soft laugh again…"

Jake reached out to brush his fingers across my cheek, wiping my tears away. "Don't think about that, Miley. I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm getting better," he smiled, pointing at his leg, "Focus on that."

Without warning, I launched myself into Jake's arm, pushing him back into the sand again. He was right. He was alive and that was what mattered. But I'd learned something in the last four weeks. I'd learned that our time on this island was precious. It could be over at any minute, and I was now fully aware of that.

Leaning down, I softly brushed my lips against Jake's bewildered face. Pulling back just far enough for me to breath, I said softly, "Jake, I'm ready."

His eyes widened-he knew exactly what I was talking about.

"Miles, are you sure?" he asked, trying to look out for me, but I only nodded in response.

"I'm positive. I don't want to wait any longer. What if something else happens that one of us doesn't survive? I need to do this…" I whispered, my eyes filling with passionate tears, "I need to show you how much I love you."

He smiled that amazingly brilliant smile, and my heart melted. He reached up, running a hand through my hair.

"You have no idea how much I love you," he said softly, his voice full of awe.

I didn't respond. Instead, I brushed my lips against his again, and again and again, showing him with my actions exactly what I felt for him.

* * *

**As always, let me know what you think. And hopefully, it would be too long before the next chapter blushes in embarrasment.**


	23. Chapter 22

**Woo!! Chapter 22!! Wow. I can't believe I'm actually writing a 'Chapter 22' for a story. It's kind of crazy! **

* * *

"Thank you."

Jake looked at me with confused eyes.

"For what?" he asked softly.

We were lying in front of the fire, cuddled up like we did every night, but this night was different. The last barrier between us had been broken earlier that day and as we lay there, soaking in the warmth of the orange flames, I couldn't help but feel we'd reached a new level of intimacy.

I turned in his arms, despite his protests, and looked up into his eyes. My hand left my side, reaching up to brush his sandy blonde hair out of his face-it seemed he was constantly frustrated by his ever growing hair and it's tendency to cover his eyes.

"For showing me the other side of love," I told him, my voice just a whisper as blood rushed to my cheeks, flushing them red.

Jake smiled slightly at me. "So I take it you enjoyed it?"

"Oh, I enjoyed it very much," I smiled up at him.

Jake puffed up his chest in mock-bravado. "Yeah, I am just that good, aren't I?"

I couldn't help but laugh. Jake could be such a dork sometimes. Though it had been a while since I'd been forced to deal with ego-Jake, it seemed every once in a while, he would slip, letting his 'fake confidence' shine through.

I smacked my hand lightly against his chest, and Jake coughed, all of the air leaving his lungs and returning his chest to its normal state.

"What was that for?" he asked, his eyes feigning ignorance.

"I like this chest better," I explained as I softly moved my hand across his upper body. "The other one is too…show-offy?"

It was Jake's turn to laugh. "Show-offy? I don't think that's a word, Miles."

"Sh…No one has to know," I whispered, brushing my lips softly against his.

I lost myself in the feeling of Jake as our lips slid across each others. The butterflies that exploded in my stomach where a welcome feeling, one I'd grown very accustomed to. I'd taken to calling them my 'love butterflies,' even though it sounds very lame. But to me, that was exactly what they were, a physical expression of the love I felt for Jake every time we laid together in intimacy.

We pulled apart seconds later, only for Jake to push me over so I was on my back as he settled himself atop me. The warm weight of his body pressing into mine sent tingles up my spine as I reached for the hem of Jake's shirt, slowly pulling it over his shoulders as he did the same with my tank top.

We made love for the second time ever that night, sharing a passion I'd never experienced before as the crackling flames cast shadows over our movements.

--

_Ten Weeks Later_

Okay, I was officially worried. And not like 'uh oh' worried, but like 'oh shit, what have we done?' worried.

It was the sixth day in a row I'd woken up to empty arms. Cursing, I rolled out of the bed, throwing on my boxers as I rushed outside the hut. Once I was outside, my eyes flew to the same location they'd flown to every morning for the last five days. Yep, there was Miley, kneeling in the sand, releasing the contents of her stomach into the water.

Breaking into a run, I hurried to where she was, settling behind her to hold her hair back for her. I didn't say anything as I sat there, softly rubbing her back and whispering words of comfort into her ear.

After what seemed like an hour but was really only five minutes, Miley wiped her mouth with her hand, falling back to rest against my chest. I didn't say anything as I held her against me. Instead my hands reached forward to rest across her stomach, rubbing through the fabric of her tank top, contemplating what lay beneath them.

"Jake, what's wrong with me?" she asked after a few minutes of deep breathing, her voice scratchy.

I knew the answer to her question. Oh boy did I know exactly what was wrong with her. I should have seen it coming. She'd been irritable for the last two weeks, going off on me for the slightest playful jab I'd make at her. And she'd been falling asleep earlier and earlier every night, claiming she was 'ridiculously tired for some reason.' Not to mention she'd been eating _a_ _lot_ more than usual lately, and her body was starting to fill out in all the right places.

And all I could think was, "How could we have been so stupid?!"

I was afraid to tell her the truth, knowing it would scare her to death, but I couldn't lie to her. She was going to figure it out sooner or later-the girl wasn't stupid; she was just a little slow on the uptake. But she'd taken the same sex education class I'd been forced to take and it wouldn't be long before she realized exactly what was going on with her.

I adjusted her against my chest so I could scoop her into my arms. Picking her up bridal style, I paused briefly by the hut to grab clean clothes from the suitcase before making my way through the forest to the waterfall. Miley didn't say anything as I carried her through the trees, instead choosing to lean against me and rest her eyes.

When we finally reached the stream, I gently set her on the ground and helped her shrug out of her clothes before I pulled my boxers off and we slid into the water. I pulled her under the waterfall, massaging her head gently with my fingers as the water splashed around us.

After a while, she seemed to be feeling better because she reached up to still my hands, opening her eyes to stare dead in mine as she said, "You didn't answer my question."

Damn it. She'd noticed. I'd purposely not answered her question, hoping to get her into a tranquil mood before I ruined it.

I sighed, dropping my hands to my side.

"You're right, I didn't answer your question," I confirmed.

"Why not?"

Her eyes shown with fear, and I reached forward, pulling her tightly into my arms.

"Miley, I think I know what's wrong," I whispered into her hair.

"What?" Her voice was small and meek.

"Think about it, Miley," I began, "We've had sex several times, and we obviously didn't use any protection because we have none…"

Her shoulders tensed. I pulled her tighter into my arms, knowing she'd just reached the same page I was on. On any other occasion, standing naked under the waterfall with her would have been downright sensual. Today, it was anything but that.

"No," she said softly, pulling away from me, "No, no, no, no…."

She was shaking her head in denial, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Yes," I said firmly, reaching out to grab her shoulders, "It's the only possibility, Miles."

But she wasn't willing to listen.

"No, it's not possible," she argued, roughly pulling her shoulders from my grasp as she made her way to the shoreline.

She hastily climbed out of the stream, not bothering to dry off with the makeshift towels we'd created as she threw her clothes back on. She didn't say anything as she took off running through the forest, leaving me standing shocked in the stream.

All of five seconds passed before I heard at least twenty twigs snap all at the same time. Worried, I jumped out of the water, throwing my boxers and a tee-shirt on as I took off in the direction she'd left in.

When I came upon her, she was collapsed in the pathway, her back against a tree as she sobbed into her arms crossed over her drawn up knees.

My heart broke as I looked down at the girl who was usually so full of life sitting in despair on the forest floor.

Slowly, I knelt down beside her, reaching out to brush my hand through her hair. But the second she felt my hand against her head, she jerked back, looking up at me with wild eyes.

"Don't touch me!" she said harshly, before jumping up again and running towards the shore.

I didn't have it in my heart to yell after her. I couldn't bring myself to follow her. I didn't want to chase her. I didn't want to pull her into my arms. I didn't want to whisper to her that everything would be all right.

Instead, I fell back against the tree she'd just been sitting against, listening as the sounds of her movement through the forest faded away.

And that was when it happened. That was the moment everything collided in my heart in an unannounced war. That was the moment I broke. It was my turn to sob into my arms, a loud, gut-wrenching sob that I'd only ever seen in movies when someone died.

It was my fault.

It was my fault Miley Rae Stewart was pregnant.

But do you want to know what the worst part was?

As upset as she was, I was happy. I was happy I was going to have a child with the one girl I couldn't imagine a life with out.

And that was the reason I was currently breaking down against a tree while I let Miley run away from me:

I held no guilt for getting Miley pregnant, and for that, I was the cruelest kind of person.

* * *

**For that to not seem completely melodramatic, you have to keep in mind the whole 'bipolar mom' thing going on for Jake. Don't worry, it'll make sense eventually. **

**Let me know what you think please? And I mean really let me know. If there was something you didn't like, point it out. If there was something that particularly made the chapter stand out, tell me. Last chapter a lot of people kept saying it was one of the best chapters of the story but no one told me why. So, elaborate, yeah? **


	24. Chapter 23

**Alrighty people! Here's the next chapter! Not a whole lot happens-I just wanted to give what I felt was much needed insight into Miley's mind after everyone freaked out over her reaction last chapter, haha. Hopefully, this should make her less evil in your eyes. :D **

**And to my wonderful beta SVUlover...where'd you go?! haha. I don't know if you ever e-mailed me the corrections for this chapter or anything, or if you ever got it at all, but I never received a response and I didn't want to wait any longer to post, so I went ahead without your response...don't hate me? Let me know what's going on in a review or something, like if the e-mails aren't working so we can figure out an alternate method of communication, yeah?? **

**And thank you to Wolfwhisperer. She gave me a wonderful idea that I'm going to smoosh together with mine, and I know you all will love it:D **

**Anywho, away you read! **

* * *

This couldn't be happening. There was no way. I was dreaming; that had to be it. I was going to wake up any minute now and realize I had been stuck in a dream world, a completely fictional world where nothing really mattered. Yep, any minute now…

Reaching down, I gave my arm a pinch, immediately wincing at the pain it sent shooting up my arm.

Okay…maybe it wasn't a dream.

I turned my gaze to the open ocean, blinking the tears out of my eyes as I watched the waves crash onto the shore in front of me- wave after wave, over and over again, crash after crash in a never ending pattern.

It was kind of like my life on this island. Day after day, all we did was wake up, eat food, collect more food and then go back to sleep. It was immensely boring, but it kept Jake and me alive, ya know?

Well, that was completely going to change, wasn't it?

I don't know how long I sat there in the sand, staring out across the endless expanse of water. I was completely lost in my own thoughts, completely absorbed in myself, thinking, pondering, wondering what the hell I was going to do now.

How was I supposed to stay healthy for the baby? How was I supposed to give birth with no medical support? I'd seen the shows on television. I knew giving birth _with_ drugs was painful. If we didn't get rescued soon, I was going to have to give birth without drugs. How was I supposed to survive that?

And honestly, how had I not noticed the signs myself? If I was throwing up from morning sickness, it had to mean I was at least two or three months along. Wouldn't I have missed a period?

That thought made me freeze. It had been a _very_ long time since I'd last had my period. I guess I'd just gotten so caught up in the day to day duties of our life, I never stopped to realize it.

There were so many questions running through my mind. I'd learned in home economics classes that socialization was essential for a child to develop properly. A bitter laugh escaped me: we were certainly lacking socialization, on a large scale at least, on this island. How was I supposed to raise a healthy child? How was I supposed to help him or her grow, mentally and physically? The diet Jake and I had been forced to eat was pathetic as it was, there was no way it would be healthy for a child.

Time passed without me and the sun began its decent into the horizon as I sat in the soft sand, wondering about so many things, and it wasn't until I saw Jake come walking out of the forest out of the corner of my eye that I remembered how I had treated him.

A huge knot settled in my chest. Guilt began to consume me as I watched him walk straight by without even acknowledging my presence. His walk was slightly choppy-he still had a minor limp from the shark attack, but he had improved considerably from his first attempts to walk so many weeks before.

I hurriedly stood up from my spot, trying to catch up to him as he walked towards the ocean. He didn't turn to look at me when he reached the water. Instead, he pulled his shirt off and ran into it, diving under the surface when he got half way out.

"Jake!" I called out to him when he resurfaced, but he ignored me.

"Jake, I need to talk to you!" I tried again, but still got no response.

Instead, he turned to face me, and I gasped. It was like someone had sucker punched me in the gut with no warning, with no time to prepare myself for it. Tears were leaking out of his eyes, illuminated by the golden rays of the sunset. His face was red and splotchy, an obvious testament to hours of crying. Immediately my eyes watered as the impact of my actions on him earlier that day settled heavy in my mind.

"Don't talk to me!" he said harshly. I winced, realizing how painful it was to be on the receiving end of a voice filled with pain and misery.

"I want to apologize!" I called to him across the water, but it seemed he was done talking to me. He turned from me, focusing his attention on trying to catch the fish swimming around his feet before the sun went down.

I didn't know how to react. I didn't know what to say, what to do. My eyes were already full of tears, threatening to fall, but I didn't want Jake to see me cry. So, I did the only thing I knew to do, I did the one thing that had become second nature to me in difficult decisions:

I ran.

I ran straight into the hut, collapsing onto the bed as sobs escaped me for the second time that day. I cried so hard I was reduced to coughing fits. I cried so hard I made myself sick, but there was nothing for me to release from my stomach-I hadn't eaten all day. So instead, I knelt behind the hut so Jake couldn't see me, dry heaving as my body tried to respond to the stress I was putting it through.

When it seemed my body was finally done torturing me, I crawled back into the hut, lying down in our pathetic excuse for a bed as a restless sleep overtook me.

--

The next morning, I woke up with a sharp gasp, sitting up quickly as I took in my surroundings, trying to make sure I was still alive after the nightmare I'd just had.

It had been terrible…a manifestation of my fears from the night before. I had been forced to witness myself giving birth from a third person point of view and the last thing I remembered before waking up was dream-Miley's eyes falling shut for the last time as she slipped from the world while dream-Jake tried desperately but unsuccessfully to stop the bleeding that had resulted from the birth.

Was that what was going to happen? Was I going to die giving childbirth? I had always been a firm believer in my religion, and the idea that everyone has a specific reason for being alive. Was my reason for living to bring a child into this world? Was that all I was meant for?

Shuddering at the thoughts, I shook my head slightly, trying to erase them from my mind as I realized for the first time I was alone in the bed. That meant Jake had never joined me last night.

Sighing, I made my way out of the hut, looking around for Jake but he was no where to be found. I didn't let my mind get the best of me as it started thinking about all of the horrible things that could have happened to him. Pausing in thought, I tried to figure out where else he might be.

I made my way to the small cave we had used to survive during the storm. After climbing up the mountain, I poked my head inside the opening, and sure enough, there was Jake, curled up underneath his jacket.

I shimmied my way through the opening and knelt down beside him, reaching out to gently run my fingers through his hair, watching as he readjusted himself on the cave floor in a subconscious response to my touch.

"Oh Jake," I whispered, "How could I have ever been so cruel to you?"

I laid myself down behind him, wrapping my arm around his middle in an imitation of how we slept every night. I knew it wasn't appropriate, I knew he was still mad at me, but I couldn't resist-I needed some form of physical contact with him. Waking up alone had felt almost like waking up without half of my body intact, but as I lay curled against his back, the feeling of emptiness dissipated and I slipped into a much needed comfortable sleep.

When I re-awoke some time later I realized I was once again alone. Sighing, I stood up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I left the cave to venture back to the beach. When I got there, Jake was no where to be found again, but this time I didn't go looking for him. He knew I wanted to talk to him and when he was ready, he would come to me.

To pass the time, I took the spear and swam into the ocean, trying to catch fish. I'd gotten pretty good at it when Jake was still recovering from the shark attack, but sometimes I still had a slight amount of trouble. Today was one of those days. It took me hours to catch enough fish but when I finally did, I deposited them in the holding container we'd created out of a hollow log outside of the hut before lying down to relax in the sun.

I pleasantly realized then that I had not thrown up once all day, which was a nice change from the way things had been the week before. Just as I was pondering my luck, the urge overtook me, and I rushed into the ocean, cursing the baby for being so mean before lying back down in the sand.

Jake reappeared on the shore some time later, but he still said nothing to me. He began to cook dinner and when it was done, he wordlessly placed a roasted fish wrapped in a leaf next to me in an unspoken gesture of care.

Hoping it meant he was ready to talk, I softly asked, "Will you talk to me now?" but he ignored me, again.

And that was how it went for the next few days. Every effort I made to talk to Jake was denied, so eventually I stopped trying at all. I slept alone in the hut every night while Jake slept on the cold, hard floor of the cave. He never said a word to me, and barely looked at me, so I stopped looking at him.

It was painful, but how else was I supposed to react? I'd tried to apologize. I wanted to tell him I was just scared the day I'd realized I was pregnant, that I had been reduced from the strong woman I felt like I'd become while on the island to an innocent seventeen year old girl with no knowledge of the outside world again. My heart pleaded with me to set things right, to tell him that I had been stupid to not realize he'd been trying to protect me by not telling me sooner rather than later.

But he never gave me the chance and eventually a full week had passed without any sort of communication between the two of us.

I sighed from my spot on the rocks crowding the banks of the freshwater stream. I was bored; not having anyone to talk too tended to do that. My eyes scanned the water, settling on a path of rocks that ran right through the middle of the stream to the other side.

Standing up I began to walk across the slippery rocks along the shore, trying to make it to the path so I could hop across them and reach the other side of the stream. Trying as best I could to be careful, I moved from one boulder to the other, slowly making progress towards my destination.

But something went wrong. My foot slipped as one of the rocks gave way to the soft dirt underneath it, falling into the stream. I tried desperately to regain myself, but my ability to balance had been thrown out of whack by the rapid changes my body was going through.

I didn't scream as I began to fall backwards onto the rocks behind me. I didn't whimper when my head knocked so hard against a rock the world went out of focus in front of me.

And the only thing I could think of as the world faded black around me was,

"Maybe I won't have to give birth after all."


	25. Chapter 24

**I'm not going to lie-this chapter is short. I apologize deeply in advance and beg for forgiveness. I wrote this as best I could between classes yesterday.**

**And on that note, Miss Krissy started school last week, which explains the horrific late-ness of this chapter. I'm going to declare it right now so you guys can bash me and get it over with: updates are going to slow BIG TIME. I'm taking 19.5 units (in case you don't know, that's a lot...the average is 12) and seven classes. To emphasize my point: I had my first class at 9:30 this morning. I got home at 9:45 tonight. Where was I all day? At school, attending my other classes. Yes, I really do spend all day on campus every Thursday. On top of that, I still have to manage to make money to pay for my car. Which means, I have time to write Tuesday nights, Wednesday afternoons and Friday afternoons, if I'm not doing homework. So don't hate me, okay? I gotta do it to get my degree when I want it instead of waiting super long. **

**For the record, I've been up since 5:45 this morning and its now 10:15. I figured that would make my insane schedule more clear. **

**And now, I get to give my point of view on reader opinions: **

**-I'm going to shift away from the 'bipolar' thing...I wasn't doing it justice (which is deserves because it's a serious condition) and I can't figure out how to, so the story is going to move away from that direction.**

**-I'm not killing Miley's baby. Take a second to imagine how many more plots lines I can add to this story with that one simple concept. Let's put it this way: if I kill her baby, the story will be over in the next five chapters. I'm doing this to keep the story going for you guys, okay?**

**-Give the poor characters a break! Sheesh, haha. People have been like freaking out over their reactions, but come on, think about it for a second. If you had been stranded on an island with no sign of civilization and waning hope of getting rescued for however many months they've been (I'm gunna say six, cuz I'm too lazy to calculate it out like I should), wouldn't you be a little crabby? I realize things aren't all 'happy-go-lucky' right now, but drama leads to plot and without plot, there can be no story. I can't just do fluff. It would get old, and frankly, I think we'd overdose on happiness, haha. I'm sorry if that's not what you want. If it really bugs you, _you_ should write a story about fluff. We need all the writers we can get on this site and I'd be happy to read it. **

**Plus, you have to admit, for being stranded on an island, they've suffered hardly any hardships, haha. I've been going easy on them. I could make them run out of food, or catch an illness that is curable only by medicine, or make a tsunami wipe out their little settlement on the shore...ohh the possibilities.**

**:D **

**That being said, I love you all for giving me your opinions and I don't take offense to any of them. I use them to try to make the story better (which sometimes I don't know how to do, aka, the bipolar thing). So don't take offense to mine.**

* * *

Sighing, I stood up from my spot on the ground, my eyes trailing over the imprint my knees had left in the grass. I'd been busy picking wildflowers in one of the few small, open grassy areas on the island. It was part of my plan: I was going to present Miley with the bouquet and apologize profusely for acting like what could only be described as a 'pathetic, immature asshole' for the past week and beg her for forgiveness.

It had been pure torture not being close to her for the past week. I'd had to stand by silently, listening to her empty the contents of her stomach every morning while wanting nothing more than to be behind her, holding her hair back and rubbing her shoulders as our child wreaked havoc on her body.

But I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't bring myself to start a conversation with Miley, to say sorry, to accept her apology.

It was petty and immature, I knew, but her blatant disregard for me the day she'd realized her pregnancy had all but broken my heart. I'd been upset and I'd been so confused that I didn't know how to respond. Sure, I could blame it on my possible 'bipolar-ness' but that was a load of crap.

The simple fact was, I was so upset by her reaction, I'd let myself develop a grudge, one that I'd held on to for no good reason at all.

But I was ready now. I was tired of the awkward glances and displaced sighs of boredom. I was ready to sit down and talk to Miley. I was ready to figure out how to move forward with her.

I could only hope she would feel the same way.

Glancing down to make sure the bouquet was reasonably large, I set off towards the shore, hoping to find Miley there.

But when I stepped onto the soft sand of the beach, she was no where to be found. I shrugged my shoulders slightly, figuring she was probably walking through the forest or something and set about trying to pass the time until she came back. It was already late afternoon so I decided to start the fire to roast one of the small animals I had captured earlier in the day. I figured I should go all out to try to win Miley's heart back, which meant good food (well as good as it could get on the island). I was going to try to crush some of the berries up in an effort to make something resembling juice so we didn't have to drink water, and I was going to cut up a coconut for us to have as dessert.

I set to work preparing the meal for Miley and before I knew it, the food was ready, the sunset was in full bloom and Miley was still no where to be seen.

I sighed, confusion settling in. Miley being gone wasn't what bugged me. After all, she'd often disappear for hours on end just to avoid me. But she always made it a point to make her way back to the beach just as the sun was beginning to set, meaning she should have returned by now.

Deciding to look for her, I stood up and quickly arranged the food to look as romantic as it could and took off for the forest. I immediately began to make my way towards the stream, knowing full well that the waterfall was Miley's favorite spot on the island.

"Miley?" I called out hopefully as I neared the flowing water, but I knew better than to expect a response-she was still mad at me, after all.

When I stepped into the open clearing, my eyes scanned the stream and its banks, looking for the brunette hair I'd come to love so much.

But the scene my hazel eyes settled on made them widen with shock: there was Miley, lying unconscious against the rocks along the shore. Her body was almost completely submerged in the flowing water and her face was dangerously close to being submerged along with it. The disturbance her body was creating in the normally gently flowing stream was causing a build up of water-it seemed as if she'd become a human dam, with water building up on one side, threatening to reach its brink. The backed up water was almost at a point to flow over her body, but if it did, it would flow over her face as well.

"Miley!" I yelled out in fright, though I knew there was no point to it.

Jumping into action, I rushed to her spot in the stream, not caring about getting my clothes wet. I slipped my arms underneath her arm pits and pulled gently until she was lying in the soft grass beside the stream, taking care not to scrape her back against the jagged rocks. Pressing the first two fingers of my left hand softly against her neck, I felt for her pulse, breathing a sigh of relief when I felt the soft thumps. They were faint, but there were there. It came as a relief when I realized she was not bleeding anywhere.

Reaching out, I gently pushed against her shoulder, hoping it would rouse her. After a couple of seconds her eyes slowly fluttered open. I sat beside her silently, waiting for her to adjust to her surroundings, but when she tried to sit up, I gently pushed her back down.

"Don't sit up just yet," I instructed softly, and Miley looked at me with confused eyes.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice just as soft.

I shook my head. "I don't know. I just found you knocked out on the rocks…"

Miley closed her eyes softly, concentrating hard on what had happened to her, trying to remember why she'd been knocked out. After a few seconds, she slowly eased her way into a sitting position.

"I remember seeing the hopping stones and deciding I wanted to jump across them to reach the other side of the stream…"

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"You what?"

Her eyes clouded again.

"I was trying to hop across the rocks over there," she explained as she pointed to seven large stones that formed a neat path across the stream, "I was trying to walk over to them, but I think I slipped."

She reached her hand up, tangling it into the curls on the back of her head.

"Ow…" she hissed softly before yanking her hand away from her head, "That would explain the pounding head ache and the softball sized bump on the back of my head."

"Miles, why would you do such a thing?" I asked her softly, worry in my voice.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Why wouldn't I? I was bored and it looked like fun."

"Fun?" I asked with shock. "You did it because it was fun? Didn't you stop to consider the possible consequences?!"

Her eyes widened in surprise for a few seconds before they hardened anger.

"Why do you care?" she asked, her voice harsh before she stood up and began to walk away from me.

I grabbed her arm before she could get to far away.

"Why wouldn't I care?" I asked her, my voice soft, but she huffed in indignation.

"Why wouldn't you care? Because you haven't cared for the last week!" she exclaimed, her face turning red with anger. "I tried to apologize for the way I acted last week, I tried to make it up to you, but you wouldn't even give me the time of day! So don't try to pretend like you care when you so obviously don't."

She rushed off before I had a chance to process what she'd so kindly yelled at me, and when it finally sank in after a full thirty seconds, I took off after her.

"That's not fair!" I yelled to her back as I caught up with her.

She froze in her spot, whipping around to face me.

"Do you want to know what's not fair? Being deserted by the man you love, by the man you thought would always be there for you, when you realize life altering conditions! Do you want to know why I was so upset? I was scared. I still am! How am I supposed to give birth to a child on an island in the middle of nowhere with no medical help? What if something happens to me? What if you're left here all alone to raise a child? I'm so ridiculously scared, Jake. And when I tried to apologize, when I tried to explain myself and tell you about my fears...you wouldn't let me. You _ignored_ me!"

She eyed me with her beautiful blue orbs, and I winced at the pain portrayed.

"How could you?" she asked softly, tears welling up, before turning and running off again.

I cursed under my breath, running to catch up to her again.

"I made a mistake!" I said forcefully as I stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Miles, I was so hurt when you ran off on me like that. I got angry, and I let my anger consume me."

She laughed sarcastically. "Yeah, no kidding."

"Miley, I'm happy about this baby," I told her softly, ignoring her response, "I want this baby."

Anger seeped into me as I flashed back to the site of Miley lying unconscious in the water.

"How could you have been so stupid to think hopping across rocks in your condition was okay?!"

The second the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. I knew they were the farthest thing from the right thing to say, but it seemed my mouth had developed a mind of its own and I stood helplessly as I watched Miley's face harden in anger again.

"Oh, so now I'm stupid?" she asked, her voice full of fury.

"That's not what I meant; I don't think you're stupid." I reached out, trying to pull her into a hug, but she resisted me.

"You know what I think?" she asked harshly.

I shook my head, afraid to hear what she was about to tell me.

"I think we should see other people!"

I would have laughed at the irony of her statement had she not been staring at me in complete, utter rage.

"Uh, Miley, we're the only two people on this island…"

She threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

"You know what I mean!"

I didn't know what she meant. I didn't know how she could possibly think that breaking up would be the best course of action, but I had tried to make her see things from my point of view and it hadn't worked. There was no point in arguing with her.

"Fine, if that's what you want," I agreed softly, and before I could give her a chance to respond, before she could see the tears that were welling up in my eyes at my failed attempt to make things right, I turned on my heel, marching off through the forest in any direction other than the one that led straight to her.

* * *

**Who wants a tip for the day?**

**When you're sitting in a lecture hall at some college somewhere in the world (should you decide to go to college) _grow up_ and respect the fact that while you don't care about how much money you've paid to be there, other's do and they want to listen to the instructor, not you whispering to your friend or typing on your cell phone for an hour straight. It's highly distracting and very immature. **

**Okay, so you probably don't do that, but these chicks that sit right behind me in my music class do and it's sooooo annoying, I feel like turning to them and saying, "Maybe you're parents paid for you to be here, but_ I'm_ paying for myself to be here and I'd like to actually learn, so if you don't mind, shut the hell up!" **

**I just I felt like sharing that in an attempt to prevent you from becoming the person everyone else hates to have in class. **

**Clearly I am in a very cynical and sarcastic mood from lack of sleep right now, so I'm going to end this with a:**

**Please, please, please show me that my insistance (i think i spelled that wrong...) to stay up when I want nothing more than to collapse into bed to post this wasn't for nothing.**

**Review? It'll make my day. **


	26. Chapter 25

**Hola! Commo estas? **

**I think I spelled that wrong. Sorry to all you proud Spanish speakers if I did. :/ I took Spanish last semester for the first time in my life 'cuz ya know, living in California and all, the ability to speak Spanish is practically a necessity but I failed horrible. My four years of high school French screwed me all up and the only thing I learned was the above words. Pathetic, huh?**

**Anyways. **

**Here's some exciting news: It's currently 4:30 in the afternoon where I live. How do I know? Because every weekday at exactly 4:30 the national anthem goes off on the base I live right next to. It's effin loud, haha, and a pain in the but. If you're driving around on base when it goes off, you gotta stop your car and wait for it to be over. If you're standing outside you gotta turn to the sound and cross your heart and people in uniform have to salute. **

**Good stuff, good stuff. **

**Here's Chapter 25! It's another shorty...sorry? The good news is I got the first of seven essays I'm required to do this semester! wooo, right? I thought so, haha. **

**Anywho. On you read! **

* * *

Sighing, I rolled over for the thousandth time that night. I released a frustrated breath of air as I tried to settle into a more comfortable position in the hopes that I could finally fall asleep, but it took no more than thirty seconds for the one thing that hadn't left me alone all night to show its disagreement with my new position on the bed: my baby. I groaned as I felt another kick-this one a well placed blow to my spine.

I was never going to get to sleep. I'd managed to get a good two hours in before the growing being inside my tummy had decided to make its presence known. That was at least three hours ago.

I gently placed my hand against my lower abdomen, trying to rub some sort of drowsiness into the baby, hoping it would fall back asleep so I could too, but there was no point-things had been this way for the past two weeks.

Two weeks. That was how long it'd been since I'd first felt the baby kick. It'd been an amazing sensation to experience, there is no denying that. But now? It was just getting old, especially since the baby was most active when I was trying to be the least active.

Yep, it'd been two weeks since I'd felt the baby first kick.

And it'd been three months since I'd last spoken more than five words at one time to Jake. Things had not been good between us since that huge fight the day I'd slipped on the rocks. Actually, they'd been downright terrible. I hadn't exactly meant to break up with Jake, but I'd been so utterly frustrated and mad that day that my emotions had got the better of me and the words had been out of my mouth before I'd been able to stop them.

And since then I'd been too embarrassed and ashamed of my actions to barely look at Jake, let alone try to set things right with him.

And do you want to know what the worst part was?

I knew my rash decision was having an effect on him. The man that I'd once admired for being so strong was anything but. It was like I'd broken him that day three months ago. His brilliant green eyes had lost their spark. His confident walk had lost its swagger and that beautiful smile I had been in love with had all but disappeared.

It was what I was most ashamed of. The fact that I was single-handedly responsible for destroying the one person that had kept me alive for the past ten months was most definitely shameful, and that was putting it lightly.

We'd had brief conversations, of course. But usually they were strictly business, like the day Jake had told me he refused to sleep in the cave anymore. He'd spent two straight days reconfiguring the lay out of our hut so he would be able to sleep in it as well. We now had three bedrooms in the hut-one for him, one for me, and one to serve as our 'living room.' He'd left the grass walls of course, unable to find a better substitute to separate the rooms and it was because of this that he could hear my nightly frustrations.

"Are you okay?" I heard him ask me softly as I sighed once again, rotating so I was lying on my opposite side.

We'd reached an unspoken agreement about things concerning the baby. I couldn't deny him his rights as a father and it'd been immediately decided that we would converse only when the baby was involved, like the first time the baby had kicked, when I'd wordlessly grabbed his hand, placing it on my stomach so he could feel the movements beneath my skin. Neither of us had said anything, both afraid we would ruin the one level we had come to a truce on.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I assured him even though my voice wasn't in it.

I heard him sigh this time.

"No you're not."

"Yes, I am," I assured again, but before I knew what was happening, Jake was slipping through the grass, crawling towards me in the dark.

"Don't lie," he said firmly as he sat cross-legged in front of me.

"What else am I supposed to say?" I asked him, letting my sadness at the situation I'd landed us in shine through. I hated this-the awkwardness and avoidance-and yet, it was my entire fault it was going on in the first place.

"You're supposed to tell me you aren't okay," he instructed.

I looked at him through the darkness, my eyes just able to make out the outline of his face. This was something new-completely unexplored territory that I wasn't quite sure I was ready for. The avoidance was working for us even though I hated it and I didn't quite know how to react to this new boldness I was seeing from Jake.

"Okay fine. I'm not okay, Jake," I sighed, "What now?"

"Now, you tell me it would be a lot easier for you to sleep if I rubbed your back and tummy until the baby fell asleep."

My eyes widened in surprise. I had been expecting many different answers from him, but that was not one of them.

"What?" I asked, slightly bewildered.

"Miley, it's stupid for you to lie here in pain every night when we both know I can do something about it. It's my fault you're pregnant in the first place…." he trailed off slightly.

I felt my eyebrows furrow in confusion. That didn't make any kind of sense. Okay, so technically it was his fault-I can't get myself pregnant, after all. But the idea that he actually blamed himself for getting me pregnant when I had been very willing to let myself be put in a situation like that was absolutely insane.

"Your fault?" I asked quietly, "Last time I checked, it takes two to tango."

"No, no, no," he denied, "I pushed sex on you. I let my feelings get in the way of my rational thought."

Okay, that was just ridiculous. I sat up from my bed, firmly settling myself right in front of what I hoped was Jake's face, ready to tell him he was completely full of it-I seemed to distinctly remember that I was the one that spoke the words, 'I'm ready,' that day.

"Have you lost your mind?"

I watched his jaw drop in shock.

"Excuse me?" he asked, his voice full of disbelief.

"I said," I began, "have you completely lost your mind?"

I had expected him to give me some sort of denial, to tell me I was the one that was losing my mind, but the response he gave me broke my heart into smaller pieces than I ever thought possible.

His voice was tired and full of emotion as he said, "I don't know, Miley. I seem to have lost everything since that day…"

My breath caught in my chest. I knew he was referring to the day we'd both realized I was pregnant. How had things gotten so twisted since then? How had I gone from being angry over being pregnant to being angry at Jake? How had I let things get this far?

I think that was the point when I realized how immature and selfish I was being. My heart broke again as I realized Jake was desperately trying and failing to hide his tears and I knew this could go on no further.

"Oh Jake," I mumbled softly, leaning forward as best I could to launch myself into his arms.

Tears began to trail down my face as I felt Jake's wet tears drop to my shoulder.

"How did we get here, Miley?" he asked me, his voice full of pain.

"I don't know," I mumbled into his shoulder, "but I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!"

I felt him laugh softly at my repeated words as he nodded against me. "I hate it, too."

"I'm so sorry," I began, ready to explain to him what an idiot I was, "I never meant to tell you I wanted to break up. I never wanted you to think I hated you. I never wanted you to think I didn't want to be pregnant. I didn't mean to hurt you so much, Jake."

Fat tears rolled down my cheeks as the pent up frustration I'd felt for the past three months exploded inside of me.

I pulled back, looking Jake dead in the eye as best I could through the darkness and said softly, "I never meant to break you…"

Jake gently shushed me by laying a finger across my lips.

"I don't want to sit here all night apologizing for mistakes we both made. I forgive you if you forgive me. Can we just fix it?" he asked desperately and I immediately nodded.

I opened my mouth to try to tell him exactly what he meant to me but a painful blow in my lower abdomen knocked the breath out of me. The hiss of pain I released jolted an immediate reaction from Jake. He guided me back to the bed, helping me lay down before he lay down next to me. He was about to put his arm across my middle when he hesitated, wondering if we had made it that far on the road to recovery.

I sighed gently as I was once again made painfully aware of how strained things had become between us. Reaching up, I gently grabbed Jake's hand, pulling it to rest on my bulging abdomen. He immediately began to gently massage it and within seconds, the baby had stilled all movements.

"How come I couldn't get it to do that?" I asked, slightly embarrassed about my inability to calm the child Jake had calmed in a matter of seconds.

Jake laughed and it was an amazing sound. "You just gotta have the right touch."

I smiled happily. Jake definitely had the right touch, in many more ways than one.

"Can I go to sleep now? At least while the baby is asleep?" I asked timidly even though I knew Jake and I had things we needed to talk about.

I felt Jake nod, so I gathered up my strength and cuddled into the strong body beside mine.

That night as I fell asleep, I couldn't help but think that even though we had a ways to go before things were completely okay between us, everything was finally starting to work out and I slept better than I had slept in two weeks.

* * *

**Not fantastic, but better than nothing, right?**

**Let me know what you think:D **


	27. Chapter 26

**Hi? Do you hate me? I'd hate me. I'd really hate me. A LOT. **

**Please don't hate me? **

**I have no words to explain why this is so late. I could give you excuse after excuse but the truth is, it's all school. I've been insanely busy. It's been a long, frustrating first half of school. **

**Anywho, yall have Wholfwhisperer to thank for this chapter. She e-mailed me and basically said, "What the hell happened to you?!" only in nicer terms. **

**So this is dedicated to her, because Monday is her birthday and she made me promise to update for her big day. **

**Happy Birthday Wendy! **

**:D **

**PS: Before you read, I want to pass on some words of wisdom I got from my English professor at the beginning of the semester. It's kind of a graphic quote, but I have a feeling it will help a lot of people with their writing:**

**"If you don't consider the reader and their lack of knowledge when you're writing, it's just like masterbation. If you're the only one getting something out of it, how can it be anything more?"**

**To explain: How can you expect the reader to see what you see in your mind when you're writing? We don't see the golden colors of a sunset you imagine if you never tell us what time of day it is in your story. It's your job as the writer to tell us these things. Tell us and we'll know. Why do you think stories that give so much more detail as opposed to just dialogue are so much more enjoyable?**

**Kind of a smart quote, huh? **

* * *

Waking up with Miley in my arms the next morning was indescribable. The intense level of rejuvenation that seeped through my body was undoubtedly a result of holding the brunette so close to me all night long for the first time in three months. 

Three months.

Three long, painful months.

Last night had been the final straw. I was tired of spending all night, every night listening to her discomfort, knowing there was something I could do about it. So, I'd finally opened my mouth. And here we were-together and not together all at the same time.

But we were at least talking to each other, which is good, right?

I sighed as I looked down at the peaceful face in front of me. As far as I knew the baby hadn't given her anymore troubles throughout the night, meaning she probably got the most sleep she'd gotten since the baby had first started moving around in its womb.

But I guess I spoke too soon. A light pulse countered the hand I had lightly traveling over Miley's belly. This was the closest I'd been to her expanding stomach in three months, and boy had it expanded. Her shirt had ridden up during her sleep and I couldn't help but find my eyes drawn to the exposed expanse of skin, taking in the fiery red stretch marks the intense growth of her abdomen had created along her stomach. This was really happening. My girlfriend (well by the end of the day she would be hopefully) really was pregnant with my child. She was going to have my baby. On an island. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean. No wonder she was so scared.

Miley's eyes fluttered open and I couldn't control the instantaneous freezing of my heart.

This was it-the moment of truth. Sure, words had been said last night, but under the cover of darkness, words could be said with no meaning at all. Now it was time to find out if we were truly ready to work things out, truly ready to figure out where we went wrong.

My eyes zeroed in on hers, holding her sleepy gaze as she gained her senses after being unconscious for so long. Finally, she smiled slightly, mumbling, "Good morning."

A breath I didn't even know I'd been holding released itself from my lungs. She wasn't yelling at me. This was good news-things were finally going to change.

"Hey," I whispered back, afraid my voice was shatter the illusion and I'd realize this had all been a dream.

But Miley's smile grew. "I slept better last night than I have in…"

She trailed off, so I answered for her.

"Three months."

"Yeah," she agreed softly, "Three months."

We laid in each other's arms for a few minutes, soaking in the comfort we'd been denying ourselves for so long. An eternity seemed to fly by, though I knew it couldn't have been more than five minutes.

Finally, I was ready to break the silence.

"So what does this mean?" I asked softly, afraid to here her answer.

"This means, I'm an idiot," she giggled and I furrowed my eyebrows at her.

"Huh?"

She smiled softly, explaining, "I'm an idiot, Jake. I can't believe I overreacted about everything and I really hope you can forgive me."

"I overreacted, too," I argued, "I didn't have to get so emotional when you walked off after realizing you were pregnant. I could have answered you when you tried to apologize the first time. I guess I was just so frustrated, I just…I don't know what I was doing."

"We both made mistakes," she decided gently, reaching out to brush my bangs out of my eyes.

"But it's getting better right?" I asked shyly.

"Yeah, it's getting better."

---

We lay in the hut most of the morning, talking about different things. We discussed why we'd had the reactions we'd had in the many different situations where things had gone so horribly wrong and told each other what had hurt us the most about the opposite's harsh yells.

Finally, it seemed like things were getting back to normal. We weren't completely okay yet but one could only take so much soul exposing before being too worn down to continue.

I chuckled when a wide yawn escaped Miley's mouth.

"Sorry," she blushed, "It's just, I haven't exactly been sleeping well and the baby is barely moving. It feels nice to not get internally punched every five seconds."

I nodded, trying to understand what she was feeling. I'd never exactly had a being growing inside my own body, but I could try to empathize right?

"Do you want to go back to sleep?" I asked her to show my understanding.

She nodded happily, before blushing and declaring, "But first, I gotta go pee!"

I couldn't help but laugh as I watched her roll to a sitting position, forcing her self to stand up. It took a few minutes, but eventually she was in a standing position. She smiled down at me before quickly making her way out of the hut.

As I watched her leave, my eyes trailed down her backside, settling on her butt. Wow. She definitely had filled out in all the right places with her pregnancy.

My eyes followed her until I could see her no more and when she was out of sight, I let out a deep sigh.

Things were working themselves out.

You know how people always use that phrase, "It felt like I was coming home," ?

Well, it felt like I was finally coming home. My mind seemed to be slowly dragging itself out of the confused fog it'd been stuck in for so many nights. The hut around me became clearer, sharper and more colored. I could really feel the awkward texture of the makeshift bed through my shirt. The wind whipped through the opening in our hut's roof where smoke from our fire escaped every night and I inhaled deeply as the breeze ruffled my hair.

A wide smile made its way across my face.

I was finally coming home.

I was about to lay my head down to relax and wait for Miley when she appeared in the doorway. She stood at the threshold of the hut for a minute, and my breath caught in my chest. The way the sun illuminated the space around her framed her in a golden background, highlighting her figure.

"Oh wow," I mumbled under my breath as I took in the sight in front of me.

Miley had to be the most beautiful person I'd ever laid eyes on. She was gorgeous, she was hot, she was sexy and she was downright radiant with her pregnant stomach. How could I have almost lost her?

Before she had could move, I jumped out of the bed and trapped her at the door.

"Don't move," I whispered, my voice full of emotion.

She looked at me with wide eyes.

"Oh God, is there a bug or something? Please tell me there isn't a bug flying around me. It's a bee isn't it?! A really big bee, huh?!" she asked in panic, her arms flying up to swat around her head.

I laughed at her antics, reaching up to still her arms.

"There isn't a bee, Miles."

Confusion settled into her features again.

"Then what is it?" she asked.

I shrugged gently. "The way the light from the sun is shining behind you is absolutely amazing. You look amazing. You_ are_ amazing."

She blushed slightly, relaxing finally. I pulled her hands down from the air above her head, settling them on my chest, still wrapped in my own.

My eyes made contact with hers, and I felt a new aura settle into the air around us, one that hadn't been experienced for three months.

Her blue eyes darkened with desire as they traveled the length of my body.

Mine followed hers (spending extra time on her chest).

And then, our eyes met again.

She leaned in slightly.

I followed.

"Jake?" she whispered my name in question.

I didn't bother to ask her what her question was- I didn't really care.

Instead, I whispered my own question.

"Can I kiss you yet?" I mumbled at her.

Did I wait for a response?

Nope.

Her lips on mine were like fire on ice. There are no words to explain the sensations I felt shooting down my body. Immediately I tangled my fingers in her hair as hers dropped from my chest, settling on my hips. My lips moved against hers, slick and wet and I couldn't contain the low moan of pleasure that escaped from my chest.

"God, Miley," I whispered when I pulled away just far enough to breath.

"I've missed the feeling of you so much, Jake," she told me, her voice husky from arousal.

Another verbal expression of pleasure slipped past my lips as I fused them against hers again.

I don't know how long we stood there enjoying the feel of each other. But I did know one thing:

Finally, I was home.

* * *

**Woot! Jiley tingles! **

**Okay, so it's not fantastic, but it's a big step in the story. :D **

**Let me know what you think, please? Pretty please? I'll give you a Cody Linley for Christmas?**


	28. Chapter 27

**I'm really dropping the ball here aren't I? I'm sorry. Unfortunately, this is another short chapter, but this one is short for a reason. If I had continued, it would have been waaay too long.**

**Thank you to those that sent me messages to get me moving. It really helps. :D **

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy it. The good stuff is coming up soon! **

* * *

I'm big

I was big.

Really big.

Huge.

Gigantic.

Monstrous…

"You're so beautiful…"

Jake kept telling me that. All the time. Every twenty minutes I hear the words whispered from his lips, "You're so beautiful…"

He'd flipped his lid.

That was the only explanation for it.

The island sun had finally got to him. The isolation was finally affecting his thought process. He'd lost his mind.

"You're insane."

He chuckled.

"No, just a really good observer. And right now, I'm observing that you are absolutely stunning."

I think he was just saying that.

I sighed, looking down at my ridiculously large stomach. Yeah…it's big. So big, I can no longer wear any of the clothes we have on the island. I've been reduced to wearing a strip of fabric around my chest and a slightly longer, skirt looking type thing around my hips.

I'm lucky I get to wear the chest cover.

Do you know how long I had to argue with Jake about that?

"_My suggestions?" Jake asked me, a silly grin on his face._

"_Yes, Jake," I confirmed, exasperation in my voice, "I can't fit in any of these clothes anymore and I need something the wear! What should I do?" _

"_Who said you need to wear anything?" he asked, confusion in his voice._

"_Jake!" I released, "I gotta have clothes on! I can't walk around here naked!"_

_He laughed, wiggling his eyebrows. "I'll do it if you'll do it." _

_A blush settled into my cheeks. The idea of a nude Jake walking around twenty-four seven was appealing. I'd be lying if I denied it. But there was no way I was going to accompany him in his nude adventures._

"_Nu uh," I resisted, "You wanna walk around naked, be my guest. I'll be wearing clothes." _

_The puppy dog face he gave me almost melted my resolve, but I managed to hold out. _

"_It's not happening," I shook my head, "I have one to many holes in my body to be sitting in the teeny particles of sand that fit in ANY opening, naked."_

_It was my turn to laugh as Jake's face scrunched in disgust. _

"_Ugh! I don't want to hear about your holes, Miley!" he exclaimed, distraught. _

"_Uh…how do you think the baby is going to come out Jake?" I asked, laughing. _

"_I don't think about that! That's your job!" he explained, "Now, back to this clothes issue. Things would be so much easier if you just skipped the clothing process altogether." _

"_I'm wearing clothes, and that's final."_

_I turned to walk off, ready to solve my clothing problem myself but I was stopped before I managed to make it two feet by a pair of strong arms around my waste. I couldn't help it as I let myself fall back into Jake's chest, listening as he murmured in my ear, "Okay, we'll make you something to wear over your butt, but there are no holes in your chest…what's your excuse for covering those up?" _

Did I mention things were finally back to normal between us? Yeah. It took a few days after the initial conversation, but eventually we realized there was no need to be on edge around each other anymore and were back to being the happy people we had been before.

We'd spent the next twenty minutes playfully arguing about why I felt I needed to cover my chest and Jake felt I didn't. But I won. Something about the words, "But there are holes in my chest, two teeny tiny ones wear milk comes out to feed the baby," sent him reeling away from me in shock, hands slammed over ears the second the word "milk" escaped my mouth.

Yep, I'd won and it had felt great.

Ah, sweet victory.

As for the current argument we were having, I was losing horribly.

Pathetically.

Horrifically.

Yeah, it was bad.

"Would you stop saying that?!" I asked angrily. No matter how many times he wanted to tell me how good I looked, I just wasn't going to believe it.

Surprised, Jake looked down at me. We were lying in the hut. It was the middle of the night and once again I'd been woken up by baby kicks. A lot of baby kicks. It was so strange…the way the baby was kicking seemed almost impossible-there was no way four limbs could move that much.

"No, I won't," he argued softly, smiling despite the anger clearly written on my face.

"But it's such a lie!"

Jake laughed. "It is not a lie. You are very, very, very beautiful."

"No I'm not," I denied, "I'm fat!"

Did I mention I'm huge?

"Miley, you're pregnant, not fat," Jake tried to explain, but I knew he was wrong.

I'd seen pregnant people in my life, plenty of them, and I knew that something was wrong with me. I'd never seen a pregnant woman the size of me, never.

"But you're wrong, Jake," I began softly.

"No, Miley I'm-"

"Please just listen to me for a second," I pleaded, breaking his words.

He nodded and fell silent, waiting patiently for me to begin speaking.

"I think there is something wrong," I told him, "I've seen pregnant people in my life but none of them were ever as big as I am. I don't get why I'm so big…"

I looked up at Jake. My eyes settled on his, and I realized there was fear in them.

"Maybe you're just going to have a big baby?" he suggested.

I didn't know how to respond, didn't know what to say. The sad truth was, I knew that wasn't it. But did I know what the answer was?

No.

No, I did not know why my stomach was so large or why my baby had some sort of super-human kicking skills.

But I was about to find out.

**Let me know what you think please? I'll try to respond to everyone like I did last chapter, but you gotta sign in so I can respond.**

**Thanks for being so patient with me.**

**-Krissy**


	29. Chapter 28

**Guess what I've got today for you guys?? An actual chapter!! Insane isn't it?**

**Enjoy!**

Do you ever get that feeling, that random feeling in the pit of your stomach? It's like you know something big is about to happen--something huge. Your heart starts to flutter in anticipation and fear. Is it going to be good? Bad? Happy? Depressing?

I've kind of got that feeling right now, but I have a strong idea of what is creating it.

My heart is indeed fluttering. In anticipation? Yes. In excitement? Yes. In fear? Ohhh yeah.

I can just feel it.

My mind is ready for it. My heart is ready for it. My soul is ready for it.

For the past few days, Miley has been complaining about random cramps in her lower abdomen and it can only mean one thing--her body is preparing to give birth.

Secretly, I think she knows what is happening as well. I'd guess she is too afraid to put a name to the sensation. I don't blame her. I know, too, that while she is probably afraid of it, she's ready for it. She hasn't slept a full night in almost a week. She always manages to slip in, at most, three hours of sleep before she is awoken to harsh jabs in her stomach that continue until sunrise.

I feel so bad for her.

But at the same time, I'm so proud of her. She's taking everything so well considering the unfortunate situation we seem to have found ourselves in. She tries to smile through her discomfort but I know it's a front. It's a front for me and I love her all the more for it.

Currently, I am washing myself off in the stream while Miley relaxes on the beach. She told me a while ago that for some reason, lying in the sand is incredibly comfortable. I told her maybe it was because the sand can move to her contours, providing padding for her body. She smiled at me and told me I was a genius. She was playing of course, but it made me feel good all the same.

I dropped my hands from where I'd been furiously scrubbing my hair in an effort to clean it without shampoo. They fell gently into the water at my waist, the currents of the stream bending to move around them.

Sighing, I let myself fall back into the freshwater, the cool temperature making my already cold body colder. Surprisingly, I didn't mind. It felt good actually. The island had become unbearably hot in what I could only assume to be the summer months. The thought made me laugh.

The summer months.

We got stranded on this island during the summer months. If it was now the summer months again, that meant we'd been lost in our own isolated world for a whole year already.

Had it really been that long?

My heart dropped. If we hadn't been rescued by now, it probably meant no one was coming. It wouldn't make sense for them to keep a search crew out in the water for over a year.

Was that what being on an island for a year meant?

My heart sank lower. I couldn't help but think Miley and I were doomed to this island for all eternity.

I began to get angry. Why hadn't they searched harder for us? Why would they give up? I let my feet drop to the stream floor, pulling me into a standing position. My hand swept out in the water in front of me, sending a spray of water in the direction of my movement.

My heart was full of confusion and fury. As I was making my way towards the nearest tree to happily release my emotions with a hand on the trunk, a piercing yell broke the air.

"Jake!"

Her voice was louder than I'd ever heard it before and it terrified me. Hastily, I pulled myself out of the stream, throwing my boxers and now ratty jeans on before running towards the shore in desperation.

The sight I came upon made my heart freeze.

Miley was kneeling on the sand only feet away from the shore. Her face was wrought with pain and her hands were pressed firmly against her bulging stomach. Inches away, I saw a wide wet spot in the middle of her impression in the sand.

So this was what I'd been expecting and waiting for. The moment was finally here.

Miley was in labor.

"Don't just stand there and look at me!" Miley yelled at me, her voice full of pain.

My body jumped in shock as I realized I'd been standing at the edge of the forest watching her grit through the pain. My legs took of running, bringing me to her. Seconds later I dropped to the sand in front of her, reaching out the grab one of her hands, pulling it off her stomach.

"How far apart are you?" I asked quickly.

"Twenty minutes," she whispered.

My eyes widened in shock.

"Twenty minutes?! Only twenty minutes?!" I repeated. "Why didn't you call me earlier, Miley?!"

She managed to shrug a few seconds later as the pain left her body.

"Twenty minutes is a long time, Jake. You would have just been sitting and waiting. The only reason I called you now is because the pain is getting to be too much," she explained.

"When did your water break?" I asked.

Again, her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug.

"I don't know," she whispered in embarrassment. "I was sleeping in the sand and one of the contractions woke me up. That was when I realized my water had broken."

My head nodded in understanding. "Okay," I responded, "What now?"

She shrugged for the third time. "I guess we just wait."

And so we waited. The cramps came and went, each time longer than the first as the space between them decreased. Miley had started to sweat in pain. I felt helpless as I sat in the sand beside her, watching the waves roll in and out. I tried to do what I could, but there was no way for me to actually know the intense discomfort she was in. Squeezing my hand could only do so much for her and believe me, she had been squeezing it. I think it broke about an hour ago.

Her contractions continued to increase until they were almost indiscernible from each other. Now, she was in constant, hair splitting pain and just as the sun began its downward descent into the horizon, Miley managed to grit out a very shaky, "It's time," as her teeth clenched tightly together.

I nodded. We had talked about this before, what I was supposed to do when the time came. My mind shifted into autopilot as I made my way to Miley's lower body. She had been lying back in the sand for quite sometime so I quickly lifted each leg for her, bending them at the knees and spreading them apart. My hands went to her hips as I grasped the soaked underwear covering her lower body and began to pull the cloth down.

In any normal condition, I'd probably have a hard on right now. But for some reason, the thought of what I was about to do frightened any sexuality of the whole 'staring at your girlfriend's nether regions' situation.

As I saw Miley's eyes squeeze shut in pain, I encouraged her. "It's time to push, Miles. Do that for me okay?"

She nodded and her face began to turn red as she forced all of her effort into squeezing a baby out of her body. As the contraction subsided, she dropped her head back into the sand, breathing in exhaustion. The rest was short lived however and seconds later she was pushing again.

I don't know how long we kept at this repetitive pattern. I knew Miley was in pain no woman should have to bare without medication. I knew she was probably going to be scarred for the rest of her life from said horrifying pain. And I knew I couldn't be any more amazed at the brunette lying on the sand, abundant tears trailing down her red face.

"I think you're almost done, Miles," I encouraged her as she pushed again, "I can see a head…"

Seconds later, my eyes fell upon the wet, wrinkled head of a baby. Miley gave one more push and the shoulders appeared in front of me. I reached forward to support the newborn child and gently gave a tug on its shoulders to help. The baby easily slid out of Miley's body, falling completely into my arms. A mere seconds later, the most beautiful sound I had ever heard resonated in my ears.

I couldn't help it-a single tear made a path down my cheek as I took in the bundle of pink skin in my arms.

"Miles," I whispered, "You did it. It's a boy, Miley. We have a baby boy…"

Miley laughed through her tears, smiling widely. I lifted the child up, trying to show her through her propped up knees what her baby looked like. After holding the child high for a few seconds, I gently placed him on the blanket Miley had created when we first found that suitcase so many months before.

I reached to the side, preparing to pick up one of the makeshift knives to cut the baby's umbilical cord but suddenly Miley yelled out in pain again. My eyes flew to her in worry. She was gritting her teeth in pain again. It looked like she was trying to push.

"Miley, what's wrong?" I asked in worry.

"I don't know," she whimpered, "My body is just telling me to push. It hurts so much, Jake…"

What? Her body wanted her to keep pushing? But why? The baby was already out…The only reason she would still need to push would be…

Suddenly everything clicked in my mind. Miley's abnormally large abdomen, the incessant, almost inhuman amount of kicking…It all made sense.

"Uh…Miley?" I asked gently, "Is there any history of twins in your family?"

She shot me a confused look. "Mh hm, my dad is a twin. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Think about it, Miles," I encouraged her.

Her eyes widened in understanding and fear.

"I don't want to push another baby out of me!"

My shoulders shrugged. What else could I do? She had to push the second child out, she had no choice.

"You can do this, babe," I whispered to her, "You've already done it once. Do it one more time, yeah? For me, please?"

Her head nodded. "For you," she mumbled as she began pushing again.

She pushed and pushed and before long, another baby had made its presence known in the world, this one a girl.

"It's a girl…"

Now, Miley dropped back into the sand, her breathing heavy in relief and exhaustion.

"It's a girl…and a boy…" she repeated.

I grabbed the knife, cutting the umbilical cord of both children before carrying them one by one to Miley's upper body so she could hold them both. Once the two babies were settled carefully in her arms, I crawled behind her, helping her sit up so she could prop herself up against his stomach.

Silence abounded as we sat in the sand admiring our children. The sun was minutes away from disappearing below the horizon. The two babies wiggled and fidgeted in Miley's arms before slowly drifting off into sleep-meeting the world takes a lot out of a little fella.

"What are we going to name them?" I asked softly so I didn't wake the sleeping newborns.

"I don't know…I didn't even think about that," she whispered back.

Hm…What could we name our children?

"How about Kathryn for the girl?" Miley suggested timidly.

"Kathryn," I repeated, "Kathryn Ryan. What about a middle name?"

"Kathryn Sue Ryan."

"Sue?"

She nodded. "It was my mom's name."

I sat silently for a minute, thinking about her suggestion. "I like it."

She smiled. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," I confirmed, leaning down to brush a kiss on the crown of her head, "What about the boy?"

She shrugged. "You should name him, he's your son and I named the girl."

So I thought a few more minutes and finally suggested, "Jacob."

Miley turned her head, looking at me confused. "We can't name him Jacob-that's your name, dork!"

Happy laughter escaped my mouth. "No, no. My name is Jake. The baby's name will be Jacob."

"You really wanna name your child Jacob?" she asked suspiciously.

"I really wanna name my child Jacob," I assured.

It was her turn to think. Eventually, she nodded her head, "Okay. Jacob Ryan. But we have to call him Jacob. No Jake, got it?"

I nodded. "Okay, Miles. We'll call him Jacob. Jacob Jonathan Ryan."

And that's how it was. We sat there silently, each lost in our own thoughts, both of us focused on the sleeping children in Miley's arms.

Kathryn Sue Ryan.

Jacob Jonathan Ryan.

They were ours. And I loved them more than life itself.

They were the only good thing to have come from our life on this island aside from my relationship with Miley so far and I couldn't help but throw my back, my eyes to the sky, praying in thanks.

**Apparently I'm not very smooth 'cuz pretty much everyone saw that coming. Oh well. I tried, haha.**

**A big thanks to my betas and my AMAZING reviewers!! I seriously cannot believe I've gotten over 700 reviews! It's astounding!!**

**THANK YOU!!**

**Let me know what you think about this one please?**

**-Krissy **


	30. Chapter 29

**I think I forgot how to write...Okay, I didn't but I might as well have considering how long I've been gone. I'm really sorry about that, by the way. I could make all sorts of excuses but you've heard them all. The good news is, the semester is officially over, finals and everything, on Friday so you should see more of me after that.**

**Two things before you read:**

**1-This story is NOT over. It is coming to an end, but there are still several chapters left (and the last time I claimed it was almost over, I ended up writing like twenty more chapters, so keep that in mind).**

**2-Over 100 people have added my story to their favorites list! On top of that, I have over 700 reviews!! Ah! You guys are INSANE! There are no words to explain how shocked I am at the level of response I am receiving for this story. All I can say is, at least you like it, haha, cuz I didn't think anyone would :D. **

**Anyways, I know you're dying to read so away you go!**

**--**

It was finally quiet. Well, not really quiet. The crash of the waves and the sway of the leaves could still be heard in the background, but luckily, that was it. No more baby cries-the two newborn children were finally asleep.

It had taken almost three hours to settle Kathryn down tonight. Three hours—the longest it had ever taken in the two weeks since I'd given birth to her and Jacob. From the night she was born, she'd been the more difficult of the two to settle down at the end of the night. On top of that, she was constantly fussy.

Jake and I had no clue what to do. We were first time parents and neither of us had a whole ton of experience with babies and _that_ was the understatement of the year. I had negative experience with anyone under the age of five and the only experience Jake had was from when his little sister was born. Of course, he'd only been five at the time so helping out with the baby then hadn't been much of an option.

And so we'd been left to fend for ourselves in raising two newborn children.

To put it short, it hadn't been a piece of cake.

Actually, it'd been a really bad piece of cake.

Having a baby wasn't easy, apparently, and it seemed the fact that they were twins made it twice as worse.

The two newborns were practically in sync with each other. They cried at the same time, smiled at the same time, got hungry at the same time and even pooped at the same time. That was probably the hardest part of the whole experience-we didn't exactly have proper diapers for the babies so we'd resorted to tearing up pieces of spare clothing from the suitcase we'd found so many months before and tying them around the tiny wastes of the newborns. The most exciting part of our makeshift diapers? They had to be cleaned on a regular basis. You try washing some other person's poop off a piece of cloth every two hours and see how happy you are.

All in all, motherhood did not suit me well.

Quite frankly, I hated it.

"I'm so tired," I whispered to Jake as I lay in his arms after settling Kathryn into her hole in the sand (it was the best we could do for a bassinette…)

He chuckled softly. "You tell me this every night, Miles. Don't worry, I got it the first time. I'm just as tired, ya know."

That was another thing that was really 'harshing my mellow' as they would have said back in the day. Jake kept acting like he took just as much a part in taking care of the babies as I did, but in all reality, he couldn't. For one, he didn't exactly have the necessary body parts to feed them every-single-freaking-time they got hungry. And believe me, they were hungry a lot.

I knew he was trying and I really appreciated it, but when Jacob started whining at what I could only estimate was four in the morning, I was the one that had to wake up to feed him. Of course, a hungry Jacob meant a hungry Kathryn and by the time the two were done feeding, it always seemed like at least an hour had passed with my sitting up, bleary eyed, wincing as the babies' gums pinched at my chest while Jake happily snored away next to me.

Okay, so maybe I was a little jealous of him being a guy and me being a girl. Maybe I was feeling a tad bit resentful of my position in this new life we'd created for ourselves, but can you blame me?

I glared at Jake with frustrated eyes but he didn't notice. He'd already closed his and slipped into a peaceful slumber. Sighing, I closed my eyes, wanting to follow him into that same blissful unconsciousness but I quickly found I couldn't.

Minutes seemed to tick by as I lay there with my eyes closed shut by force—had I stopped trying to close them, they would have easily fluttered open. Jake was sound asleep, his arms around my waste slack in their grip. I rolled to my back in his arms, then to my side so I was facing the babies. The minutes melted together and finally, my eyes fluttered shut.

Seconds later I was happily dreaming about life before being stranded on this island when I was harshly ripped from my slumber by the wails of a two week old child. I knew right away from the cry that it was Kathryn. Again.

"Jake," I whispered, prodding him gently, "Jake, please, Kathryn is crying."

"That's your job, Miles," he groaned, rolling over to face the opposite side of the hut.

"Please, Jake, I just want to sleep for once," I whispered, tears flooding my eyes.

"She's probably hungry," he groggily whispered through his sleep, "I can't do anything about that."

"Maybe she just needs to be changed," I argued, "Can't you at least find out in case I don't need to get up?"

But he was lost to the land of dreams without another word. When I got no response, I whimpered in frustration and pulled myself out of the bed.

"Whatsa matter Rini?" I whispered through my sleepless haze as I picked her up out of the sand, "What's wrong baby?"

The second I lifted her out of the sand, I knew what was wrong—she needed to be changed.

Kathryn needed to be changed.

And Jake could have changed her.

And yet, here I was, changing my daughter's diaper while he slept peacefully a few feet away.

The entire time I was changing Kathryn's diaper, tears leaked out of my eyes. I ignored them however, letting them fall into the sand beneath my knees. Soon enough, she was in a fresh diaper and I'd settled her back into the sand. I knew it was only a matter of time before Jacob needed the same thing, so instead of lulling myself into a false sleep, I sat wearily in the sand, waiting for the beginning signs of his fussing. Seconds later, I was bent over my son, repeating my actions.

When he was finally back in bed, I crawled back in my own bed only to realize that the spot I was to sleep in had become cold without my presence in it. My body shivered from the cold and a frustrated groan escaped my lips. This was going no where.

I rolled out the bed yet again and made my way out of the hut. The moon shone bright, reflecting off the serene ocean. Strolling along the shore, I soaked in the waves crashing at my feet as I pondered the situation I'd gotten myself into. All I wanted was a sign—something to tell me I was doing the right thing and my babies were going to be healthy despite my lack of parental knowledge. I wanted more than anything to see my mother appear before me and reassure me of her love, but I knew that was impossible; she was in another world, one that didn't have a place for me.

Sitting down in the sand, I found myself almost wishing I could join her world. How much easier would things have been if I'd just been killed in the plain crash with everyone else over a year ago? I wouldn't have had to live on an island, fighting for survival for the last year and, more importantly, I wouldn't have accidentally brought two kids into the world that I couldn't even seem to care for.

What had I done?

"You haven't done anything, baby girl."

My heart jumped to my chest as a voice I hadn't heard for so many years made its self known in my surroundings. I flew to my feet, turning a complete circle before my eyes fell upon the face of my creator.

"Mommy?" I whispered in shock and surprise. "Is it really you?"

"It is," she nodded.

"But, you can't be here," I argued, "How are you here?"

"You wanted to see me, so here I am," she smiled gently, "Remember what I used to say when you were little?"

My mind thought back to many years before as the words played gently in my mind.

"When I can't be with you, dream me near…" A lone tear trailed down my face. "This is a dream, isn't it?"

My mother nodded sadly. "It is, honey; even I can't defy the laws of death."

She padded barefoot in the sand towards me, her ethereal white dress fluttering in the breeze around her.

"I'm here because you wanted a sign," she explained when she stepped right in front of me. She laid her palm gently against my cheek, rubbing her thumb softly over the soft skin she found there. I couldn't help but lean into her touch, relishing the comforting contact.

"Am I doing this right, mommy?" I whispered, "Is everything going to be okay?"

"You are doing everything you can, baby girl, and that's all you need to do," she responded. Her voice sounded miles away; it had an unearthly crisp to it that screamed motherly love.

"But is it the right stuff?"

She didn't answer this time. Her palm dropped from my cheek.

"Just know, when it comes down to it all, you did everything in your power to be the best mother you could be to those two little children. That's all that matters, honey," she whispered.

"But I wished they'd never been born!" I suddenly yelled back in frustration. "How does that make me a good mom?!"

She smiled gently. "All you have to do is love them with all your heart."

My head shook in argument. "But I don't love them. I just want them to go away!"

"You don't," she reached out and grabbed my hand firmly, "You love both of those children with everything in you and you know it. Think about it, Miles."

So I did. I thought about what she said and dug deep into my soul and found the love I had for Kathryn and Jacob and acknowledged it; I was a mother who held a deep, passionate love for her children.

"You're right, mama, I do love them. I love them so much," I whispered as more tears leaked out of my eyes.

"I know."

She took a few steps back and immediately, the air around me got colder.

"Something bad is about to happen, Miley," she whispered, "Something real bad, but it is meant to happen. Cling to that when it gets rough, Miles, cling to that, and know, she'll be with me and I'll take care of her."

She?

"What are you trying to say?" I asked, roughly, "What is supposed to happen?!"

But my mom only smiled at me sadly.

"It's time to wake up now, baby girl. Jake needs you, he's already discovered the news. He loves you, honey, don't forget that."

She turned from me and began to walk off into the distance.

"What news?! What are you taking about?!" I yelled after her. "What are you trying to do to me, mom?!"

I closed my eyes in frustration, blinking away the tears and when I opened them, she was gone. Instead, my name was being called over and over again. Jake was calling for me.

My eyes flew open to greet the harsh light of the sun. Had I really fallen asleep on the beach and slept all the way until morning?

Rubbing my eyes, I sat up and yawned widely.

"Miley!"

My head whipped to face Jake as he rushed out of the hut.

"Miles, thank God you're okay!"

He ran to me, throwing his arms around me in a fierce hug, fat tears falling down his face.

"Why are you crying?" I asked, confused, "I've slept out here plenty of times."

"It's not that," he whispered through his tears, pulling back to look me square in the eye.

"It's Kathryn, Miles. She's not breathing and…her heart…It isn't beating."

--

**I know, I know. That was cruel and unusual punishment. Sorry, but it had to be done / **

**BUT! You can click that nice little "go" button down there to leave me a review and tell me exactly how much you hate me for leaving you with yet another cliff hanger :D **

**PS: my goal is to have 1,000 reviews before the end of the story...wanna help? **


	31. Epilogue

They laid little Kathryn to rest two days later.

Five days after that, they were rescued.

They were home within two weeks, and life returned to normal—as much as normal was possible for the new parents.

Jake Ryan got a wake-up call when Miley refused to live with him upon their arrival home; she was still hurt by his actions in the days after their two children had been born. He made his amends, however, and the mutual loss of a child and love of another child brought the two back together.

Miley Stewart became Miley Ryan a year later, on the anniversary of their first daughter's passing, as a way to remember the difficult times they had shared on that island.

Hannah Montana died in that plane crash. Jake Ryan survived, fell in love with a 'fellow passenger', and abandoned acting for a more humble life.

Thirty years have passed since the fated events that left the two former teen wonders stranded to survive on their own. Miley and Jake never had another child, choosing instead to shower their son with affection in memory of his sister. Little Jacob Junior is married and has his own little girl, fittingly named Kathryn in honor of the sister he never knew.

They currently reside in sunny Southern California, where they spoil their grandchild, walk their two dogs every evening, and host neighborhood barbeques that are talked about for weeks after they occur.

They live a quiet, happy life.

They also live far from any beach, and far from the middle of nowhere.

* * *

**Dear Readers,**

**I am both shocked and appalled that I let this story fall apart the way it did. Unfortunately, life took me to places other than the Hannah Montana fandom, and upon completing the chapter before this, I simply had no desire to even attempt to finish the story. It wasn't a case of writer' block. It was simply a loss of motivation. My guilt finally got to me a few days ago, so I typed up this small epilogue to finish the story. I know it's not nearly as satisfying as what readers are expecting, if they even read this. I do know, however, that it finishes the story and gives it some closure. My main intent is that, should someone stumble upon this story and read it for the first time, they will have a complete story to read, rather than an unfinished one that an author abandoned. This section really is an epilogue, to give readers an idea of how the story would have ended if I had finished it. I do, feel, however, that the previous chapter was an adequate, albeit dramatic end, so in my personal opinion, and for the sake of other readers, I will mark this story as complete.**

**Thank you for taking the time to read my words. If you are a returning reader, thank you for taking the time to finish what I started too many years ago.**

**I hope you enjoyed my little slice of the Hannah Montana world.**

**-Krissy  
**


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